Cyberslacking? Web Filtering Company Bloxx Highlights Impact and Risks of Social Networking for Organizations

Survey finds that 90% of IT managers believe access should be banned or restricted.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) November 6, 2009 -- (Bloxx Inc.) Research released this week by Bloxx, the innovator in Web content filtering, has highlighted the potential business impact of staff accessing Social Networking sites in the workplace. A broad cross section of ICT professionals from public sector and private organizations was surveyed and over 90% believe that access to these sites should be restricted or banned.

Social Networking Survey by Bloxx, innovator in Web content filtering

The research shows that the biggest concerns for IT Managers are staff productivity, network security risks and damage to corporate reputation.

Over 22% of respondents do not have any controls in place for staff accessing Social Networking sites. With the survey showing that 35% of IT managers believe staff are spending more than 30 minutes each per day on average accessing Social Networking sites, these companies are potentially providing an additional 16 days paid holiday for each employee.

However, this research also shows that Social Networking is increasingly being used as a valuable business tool and access is required to harness the benefits these sites can bring to businesses.

"Although this was a survey of UK organizations, the same problems are entirely relevant to North American organizations who can't afford to underestimate the risks of Social Networking use in the workplace," said Eamonn Doyle, Chief Executive Officer at Bloxx. "However, our view is that a complete ban is unrealistic and adopting this approach means that companies can't obtain the potential business benefits of Social Networking and can alienate staff."

"It really doesn't have to be all or nothing with Social Networking - the strategy companies need to adopt is one that combines employee education, well-thought-out acceptable use policies and effective, discriminating, cutting-edge Web filtering technology," adds Doyle.

Download the full results of the Bloxx's Social Networking survey.

About Bloxx
Bloxx Inc., the enterprise Web filtering company, offers appliance-based Web filtering for medium and large organizations in both the business and public sectors. Established in 1999, Bloxx is a privately held company with offices in the U.S., U.K., The Netherlands, and Australia. For the past two years running, it has been recognized by Deloitte as one of the U.K.'s Top 50 and EMEA's Top 500 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in its prestigious "Fast 50" and "Fast 500".

About Bloxx Tru-View Technology
Bloxx Tru-View Technology uses internationally patent pending technology to analyze and categorize Web pages quicker and more accurately than other Web filters which use manual URL classification and keyword scoring alone.

Using advanced intelligence identification and analysis techniques, Tru-View Technology provides instant classification of Web content as soon as it is accessed, even if the content has not been seen by anyone before.

An estimated 1.5 million users already benefit from enhanced security and performance with low administration and no cost per user charges. Additional protection is provided via anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-phishing functionality.

Learn more about Bloxx web filtering products.

Editorial Contacts
Interviews, photography and further information are available from Ruth Broers at Bloxx.      
Tel: +1 617 924 1500         
Email: pr(at)bloxx.com
Web: http://www.bloxx.com
To view the original article, please visit Bloxx Internet filtering's website.

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