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Press Release
Spyware Problems Cost Enterprises Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Each Month
Survey Shows Enterprise End Users Increasingly Adopting Unsanctioned Network Applications that Put Their Organizations at Risk
FOSTER CITY, CALIF - August 2, 2005 - FaceTime Communications and NewDiligence, a market research company, today released data that show enterprises spending on average $130,000 per month in IT time fighting spyware related issues. The data were collected in a survey of more than 1000 end users and IT managers to determine the impact that the growth of unsanctioned applications have on enterprises. The survey specifically highlights the fact that reports of spyware are occurring at twice the rate of virus infections. In addition to the IT costs associated with remedying infected machines, these incidents have led to thousands of dollars in productivity loss. Further exacerbating the issue, the survey also shows a growing end user adoption rate of unsanctioned network applications on enterprise PCs.
FaceTime considers spyware part of a larger, fast-growing set of unsanctioned applications called "Greynets." Greynet applications are downloaded and installed on end user systems, without express permission from, or awareness by IT (and often without even the end user's awareness - as with spyware) and then use evasive techniques to traverse the network. Greynet applications include instant messaging, P2P file sharing, web conferencing, SKYPE, web mail and adware/spyware.
The Greynet Research Study found the following:
- In general, end users believe they have the right to install Greynet applications at the workplace. They also believe IT has any security issues associated with Greynets under control. 87% of the same end users reported a spyware or virus problem resulting in slow Internet response times, pop up ads and corrupted files.
- Among IT managers who have rolled out perimeter security solutions, consisting of gateway AV, URL filtering and IDS/IDP, 77% have had a spyware incident in the past 6 months, and 3 out of 4 IT managers stated that spyware incidents were occurring at the same or greater frequency compared to 6 months ago.
- Within the next 6 months virtually all end users will have deployed some type of Greynet application and 8 out of 10 end users (78%) now use one or more Greynet applications; Based on stated intentions this number will rise to 93% in the next 6 months.
- 91% off all IT managers surveyed have a desktop anti-spyware product installed yet they are not overly confident in its ability to stop spyware.
- 3 in 10 IT managers who experienced a virus incident, report that IM has been associated with such occurrences. A similar proportion report that IM has been associated with spyware.
"In today's enterprise, we are seeing significant adoption of both 'good' and 'bad' Greynet applications on employee PCs," said Kailash Ambwani, President and CEO of FaceTime Communications. "Through our IMPact Center, we are observing a steady increase of worms, viruses and growing threats, such as spyware, within the enterprise, and are discovering from customers and through this research that current network and desktop security technologies are not effectively solving the spyware problem.
The Greynet Research Study, conducted over the last three months, was designed and fielded to 622 IT managers and 564 end users across small, medium and large businesses. This study was conducted to learn the corporate use of Greynets and the impact of spyware and virus incidents within an organization.
About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant
messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by
IDC for four consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by
more than 900 customers – including nine of the 10 largest U.S. banks – for
security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime
supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise
IM network providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM,
Reuters and Jabber.
FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, California. For more information visit
http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE.
The FaceForward blog, at http://blog.facetime.com,
offers thoughts and opinions about the changing nature of Internet communications.
About IMPact
FaceTime delivers the industry's first IMPact Index, which assesses "point-in-time" risks posed by viruses, worms and other malware propagating through Greynet applications.
The FaceTime IM and P2P Activity (IMPact) Team is the only focused and specialized intelligence and response organization addressing the rapid proliferation of new IM and P2P threats and provides an aggregate risk level of the day's threats, with the IMPact Index. The IMPact Team is comprised of FaceTime's security experts working from FaceTime's U.S. and India locations to monitor, analyze and report on all malicious IM and P2P-related activity. The team delivers documented countermeasures to the IT community at large to instantly defend against the latest attacks.
About NewDiligence
NewDiligence is a market research firm specializing in the study of business-to-business markets for Internet-based products and services. The company is especially focused on emerging or highly competitive technology spaces, such as enterprise instant messaging, digital medical records, collaborative work applications, content management and online financial services.
NewDiligence is based in San Francisco, California.
PR Contact:
Emily Chamberlin
650-762-2945
echamberlin@ar-edelman.com
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