Percentage of IT Percentage of
Managers who locations that
thought app was show at least one
being used in endpoint using
their location the app
----------------- -----------------
Social Networking 60% 100%
----------------- -----------------
Instant Messaging 66% 100%
----------------- -----------------
Web based IM 35% 97%
----------------- -----------------
Streaming Audio/video 80% 94%
----------------- -----------------
IPTV 10% 100%
----------------- -----------------
P2P File Sharing 54% 96%
----------------- -----------------
Web Conferencing 82% 83%
----------------- -----------------
VoIP 40% 100%
----------------- -----------------
Anonymizers 15% 74%
----------------- -----------------
The reason for the high prevalence of Web 2.0 activity is clear. Throughout the four years of FaceTime's attitudinal survey ("The Collaborative Internet: Usage Trends, End User Attitudes and IT Impact"), end users have consistently said they have the right to download whatever applications they choose to help them do their jobs. Through its award-winning Unified Security Gateway 2.0, FaceTime offers enterprises visibility into these Web 2.0 and real-time applications, as well as the ability to control access to them without curbing employee productivity and collaboration. USG2.0 offers more flexibility in creating and propagating polices across teams and departments; total visibility into Internet application traffic; robust malware detection and filtering and comprehensive URL filtering. Time of day policies and usage quotas can be set based on IT's discovery of employee application traffic patterns on the network to manage social networking and Web 2.0. OTHER KEY FINDINGS FROM FACETIME Adware and Malware Remain a Constant Threat Blocking adware and malware at the perimeter gateway remains critical.
-- 95 percent of locations reported attempted Trojan infections; 65
distinct Trojans were identified and blocked across all locations.
-- 73 percent reported attempted worm infections; Nine distinct worms
were identified and blocked across all locations.
-- 98 percent reported attempted adware infiltration, with an average of
35 adware products per location. Larger organizations (2,500+ employees)
suffered significantly more adware attempts than smaller organizations.
Average of 95 social networking sites in use; obscure sites just as
dangerous as the well-known
Social networking was the biggest category. More than 400 unique social
networking sites were in use overall, with an average of 95 sites per
location. Facebook was the most used site by a large margin, with 50,000
instances of Facebook use on these networks. In contrast, the no. 20 site
on this list was accessed just 600 times across all reporting locations,
creating a long-tail effect that can't be ignored when determining which
sites to monitor and control for potential security and compliance issues.
"Even the most obscure social networking sites are as much of a threat to
network security as the most popular sites," said Chris Boyd, director of
malware research for FaceTime Communications. "By categorizing, detecting
and writing policy for Web-based applications, IT staff can rest assured
they are taking every measure possible to protect the network's integrity."
FaceTime defines social networking as any application or Web site that
links communities of people together through the ability to upload and
share media such as photos, videos and bookmarks, blogs, or to message or
link with friends, or to make new ones.
FaceTime analyzes Web 2.0 applications and sites across 13 categories on
its www.GreynetsGuide.com Web
site.
Findings Show Corporate Employees are Widely Connected
Additional data paints an interesting picture of Internet use in corporate
America:
-- Facebook -- A total of 1,851 unique Facebook applications were
detected across all reporting locations, with an average of 98 per
location. Facebook Chat was found most often, followed by Super Wall, Top
Friends, Causes, Slide Fun Space, We're Related, Viddler, SuperPoke!, The
VideoJug Brain-o-Meter and (Lil) Green Patch.
-- Instant Messaging -- AIM/ICQ and GoogleTalk were most prevalent, found
in 100 and 98 percent of reporting locations, respectively. 68 unique
applications were found across all locations, with an average of 12 per
location.
-- Meebo -- Web-based instant messaging was found in 98 percent of
reporting networks, with half of those being Meebo.
-- IPTV -- 34 distinct IPTV applications were found across 100 percent of
reporting networks, with an average of 15 applications found per network.
-- Virtual Worlds -- Of the 81 Virtual Worlds in use across these
corporate networks, 75 are for children and teens. The top five are Meez,
Weblo, Second Life, Neopets and Club Penguin. An average of 11 virtual
worlds were found per network.
-- VoIP -- 26 VoIP applications were found, with Skype present in 100
percent of networks.
-- Web Conferencing -- 26 distinct Web conferencing applications were
found in 84 percent of reporting networks, with an average of 5
applications in each reporting network.
"Clearly, the complexity of today's Internet application traffic far
exceeds what URL filtering alone can detect and control," said Kailash
Ambwani, president and CEO for FaceTime Communications. "Today's businesses
need more sophisticated application control to secure and manage how
employees use the Internet."
Unified Security Gateway 2.0
USG integrates Web2.0 application detection and control, gateway malware
protection and Web filtering with FaceTime's best-in-class IM hygiene and
archiving, in a purpose-built, hardened appliance. With this single point
of control, more than 1,400 Web and real-time applications and many
thousands of social networking applications can be tracked, monitored and
controlled to give organizations complete visibility into all Internet
communications, reduce total cost of ownership, and simplify
administration.
With USG, IT administrators can set time of day or usage policies across
all applications and view detailed reports to gain complete visibility into
employees use of the network -- not only in terms of browsing but also
specific Web 2.0 usage. This complete visibility and control provides IT
with a distinct advantage in managing network resources in addition to
securing against inbound malware and putting controls in place to prevent
outbound data leakage.
At the core of the USG2's extensive application detection and filtering
capability is FaceTime's recently announced Application Control
Engine (ACE). Backed by FaceTime Security Labs' exclusive application
analysis and categorization, ACE automatically updates its database to stay
current with new application detections.
Availability and Pricing -- No URL Filtering Fees
Unified Security Gateway will be available immediately from FaceTime
Communications and its worldwide channel partners, with prices starting at
$4,995. For more information please visit www.FaceTime.com.
To help IT managers meet new budget demands, FaceTime also today launched
its Forget the Fees program (see related
announcement), eliminating URL
filtering fees for the duration of any new qualifying contract signed
before April 30, 2009. More information is available at
http://www.facetime.com/nofees
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 five consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions
are used by more than 1,000 customers 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 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
FaceTime, FaceTime Communications, IMAuditor, FaceTime Unified Security
Gateway, FaceTime Security Labs, IMPact Index, SpywareGuide.com and the
FaceTime logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of FaceTime
Communications, Inc. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.
Contact Information: FaceTime Media Contact: Joshua Barnes A&R Edelman 650-762-2865