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The Collaborative Internet: Usage Trends, Employee Attitudes and IT Impacts
Fourth Annual Survey, October 2008
Internet Application Usage
Increased Use of Internet Applications
In 2007, 85% of endusers reported using one or more of: IM, peer-to-peer
collaboration or sharing, or anonymizers. In 2008, 97% of endusers report using
an Internet application on their work PC In effect, virtually all endusers now
use an Internet-accessing desktop application on their work computer. These
range from relatively benign and common applications like browsers to more
risky tools that can share files and applications over the Internet, anonymize
surfing patterns, and, potentially, affect corporate security. Many of these
applications actively traverse the corporate network while evading security
measures.
According to IT respondents, the average number of Internet applications
installed at their companies has increased significantly in the past year,
continuing the trend noted in 2007. Two-thirds of all work locations report
eight or more Internet applications in use--three times as many as 2005 when
the study was first launched.
On average, IT respondents report 9.3 Internet applications in use at their
organizations.
Overall Company Usage of Internet applications, by company size.
Notable differences:
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Use of streaming media and file sharing is higher at smaller companies
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Not surprisingly, collaborative work application usage increases by company
size (larger companies are more likely to use)
| |
Total employees |
From 1 to 99 |
100 to 999 |
1000 to 4,999 |
5,000 or more |
| Instant Messaging (NET) | 86% | 87% | 83% | 85% | 87% |
| Public instant messaging | 66% | 82% | 74% | 63% | 55% |
| Internet or Web-based chat | 35% | 33% | 32% | 45% | 31% |
| Enterprise IM or UC | 45% | 16% | 25% | 52% | 69% |
| Media (NET) | 85% | 92% | 86% | 82% | 82% |
| Streaming audio/video | 80% | 90% | 78% | 78% | 78% |
| Subscription media | 51% | 51% | 52% | 58% | 47% |
| IPTV | 10% | 5% | 16% | 10% | 9% |
| File Sharing (NET) | 54% | 64% | 57% | 57% | 45% |
| Remote synchronization | 35% | 38% | 37% | 43% | 28% |
| Music/video sharing | 27% | 34% | 31% | 32% | 19% |
| Document Sharing | 24% | 23% | 23% | 26% | 24% |
| Collaboration (NET) | 93% | 93% | 95% | 93% | 91% |
| Web conferencing | 82% | 80% | 84% | 82% | 83% |
| Collaborative work apps | 59% | 41% | 54% | 66% | 67% |
| Social Networking Sites | 60% | 66% | 58% | 61% | 59% |
| Blogging | 38% | 30% | 36% | 44% | 39% |
| Microblogging | 17% | 7% | 19% | 24% | 16% |
| Internet Telephony (NET) | 69% | 62% | 72% | 72% | 68% |
| Personal/client-based tel. | 40% | 51% | 46% | 39% | 30% |
| Enterprise/server tel. | 50% | 23% | 48% | 56% | 60% |
| Other (NET) | 89% | 93% | 91% | 90% | 85% |
| Web-based mail | 75% | 82% | 81% | 84% | 63% |
| Anonymizers & proxy servers | 15% | 5% | 17% | 18% | 16% |
| Google desktop | 56% | 54% | 57% | 64% | 51% |
| Browser plug-ins | 64% | 54% | 68% | 70% | 63% |
| Other | 2% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 4% |
| None of these | 2% | 2% | 2% | 0% | 3% |
Base: Total IT Respondents
IT and Enduser Risk Assessment
IT staff are somewhat more likely to assign risk to IM compared to endusers-but
risk assessment for other Internet applications between the two groups is
roughly equivalent.
| |
IT |
Endusers |
| IM is risky for my company's network security | 53% | 44% |
| The advantages of IM outweigh the risks | 33% | 37% |
| Web 2.0 applications are risky for my company's network security | 28% | 29% |
| The advantages of Web 2.0 outweigh the risks | 25% | 28% |
Base: Total Respondents
IT Attitudes Towards Internet Application Usage
There are notable differences in IT’s assessment of enduser awareness and the
effectiveness of corporate policies, based on company size. At larger
companies, IT is more likely to believe that endusers are educated with respect
to corporate Internet usage policies. Similarly, at larger companies management
is more likely to be aware of federal regulations that govern legal archiving
requirements.
Regardless of company size, one in three IT respondents believe that policies
are ineffective methods for controlling enduser downloading of applications.
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From 1 to 99 employees |
100 to 999 |
1000 to 4,999 |
5,000 or more |
| Most endusers are aware of corporate Internet usage policies | 69% | 63% | 52% | 76% |
| Endusers are regularly trained on how to keep their computers secure from threats | 44% | 29% | 25% | 37% |
| Most endusers comply with corporate Internet usage policies | 59% | 44% | 34% | 53% |
| Management is aware of federal regulations that govern our archiving/storage requirements | 56% | 51% | 64% | 69% |
| End users continue to download applications they want to use regardless of policy | 36% | 34% | 33% | 31% |
Base: IT Respondents
Communication Monitoring by Company Size
Larger organizations are more likely to actively monitor and track employee
communications and web usage, compared with the smallest companies. That said,
the largest organizations still have a ways to go to insure security: Only 45
percent monitor IM communications. That’s much better than the 25 percent of
the under-100 employee organizations that do so, but still leaves large
companies remarkably open to a communications vector for which 50 percent of
their employees identify IM as a risk.
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From 1 to 99 employees |
100 to 999 |
1000 to 4,999 |
5,000 or more |
| Corporate email | 72% | 76% | 77% | 84% |
| Instant messaging communications | 25% | 36% | 40% | 45% |
| Peer to peer file sharing | 28% | 41% | 44% | 40% |
| Web browsing/websites visited | 54% | 59% | 70% | 72% |
| Web 2.0 applications | 23% | 26% | 20% | 28% |
| Social networking | 30% | 30% | 36% | 42% |
| None of these | 21% | 18% | 15% | 8% |
Base: IT Respondents
Awareness of monitoring seems to have little or no impact on greynet usage. The
only detectable differences in behavior occur among endusers who are aware of
company monitoring and are also more likely to use enterprise tools (enterprise
IM, conferencing or telephony). The use of enterprise software may contribute
to a heightened awareness of corporate/organizational. That suggests that
corporate policies on monitoring may have a low impact on employee behavior.
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