Mumbai: Websense, Inc., a leader in Web security and content protection, has announced the findings of the SOS 'State of Security' survey conducted in India.

Websense, Inc. is a leader in integrated web, messaging and data protection technologies, provides Essential Information Protection™ for more than 42 million employees at more than 50,000 organizations worldwide. Distributed through its global network of channel partners, Websense software and hosted security solutions help organizations block malicious code, prevent the loss of confidential information and enforce Internet use and security policies.

The survey commissioned by Websense and undertaken by The Nielsen Company, India, assesses the impact of the Internet at work, and gauges awareness of Internet security risks among employees.

The study of employees working in 450 organisations across Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad, surveyed employees with Internet access at work in large businesses, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

According to Surendra Singh, Regional Director, SAARC, Websense Inc., "The survey findings highlight that a majority of employees today spend a significant time on the Internet when at work. However, the majority of these employees are not aware of and hence not worried about the security threats arising from the Internet."

Key findings of 2007 State of Security India, employees survey:

Unsafe IT behaviour leads to unintentional loss of confidential information
63 per cent of respondents from Delhi use their personal email ID for work purposes, against the average of 36 per cent.

Delhi and Bangalore also have the highest proportion of respondents (32 per cent) who send work documents to personal e-mail accounts, versus the average of 23 per cent. 

Given the nature of data that the banking and financial services industry (BFSI) deals with, 42 per cent of employees in this vertical use personal e-mail for work-related activities.

In Bangalore, an average of 17 per cent of respondents admitted to clicking on links in e-mail sent from unknown sources and 22 per cent on pop-up ads highlighting a significant section of Internet users who are ignorant of online threats.

Leaking information a job threat
57 per cent employees feel leaking sensitive company information or infecting their company with malicious spyware or viruses (38 per cent) puts them at greater risk of losing their job, than not adhering to their organisation's Internet policy (20 per cent).

Almost one-third employees (31 per cent) believe they will lose their job on viewing adult content at the workplace, and 22 per cent said they would lose their job if found downloading unauthorised software.

Employees surfing behaviour
64 per cent of respondents admitted they are bit fearful of the security dangers of the Web and hence surf only safe websites.

However, 39 per cent of all respondents agreed that they download movies, music, software etc. while at work. Significantly, 30 per cent said that they surf aimlessly with no particular destination in mind, and about the same proportion of respondents said they surf without bothering about online security.

Internet - A critical work enabler
All employees surveyed spend an average of 4.25 hrs per day on the Internet. Employees spend 45 per cent of their time (3.5 hours) per day surfing work-related websites, the highest being in Chennai 50 per cent (4.25 hours), and in Hyderabad 65 per cent (5.5 hours).

The average time spent on non work-related websites is 5 hours per week. Enterprises incur a productivity loss of approximately Rs160,000 per employee per annum due to non work-related surfing.

Organisation's Internet security
Almost 70 per cent of employees in India appeared confident of their IT department's capabilities to protect them against every Internet security threat.

Web is biggest source of infection
52 per cent of all employees surveyed believe that the web is a key source of infection, followed by e-mail (39 per cent) and instant messaging (4 per cent).

In similar findings, IT managers also believe the web (48 per cent) to be a key source of network infection followed by e-mail (46 per cent).

Data leakage
35 per cent of employees feel most worried about losing both personal as well as work-related information. However, 28 per cent of employees do not feel worried at all about any personal or private information being stolen or accessed from their work PC.
 
The survey was conducted by The Nielsen Company, India across five Indian metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad among Employees of 450 large (over 750 employees), medium (300 - 750 employees) and small organisations (150 - 300 employees) in India with Internet access to gauge the impact of Internet at work and the security risks it poses. The organisations were chosen across key verticals - Manufacturing, BFSI, IT/ITES, Pharmaceuticals, etc.