Posted by SecExtra on December 01st, 2009

Accessing and downloading material from Facebook and YouTube when at work accounts for more corporate web activity and used bandwidth than any other sites, according to analysis by managed security firm, Network Box.

Nearly six per cent of all web traffic from business networks is to Facebook – higher than to any other website. Google is next in line, at 4.1 per cent.

Nearly eight per cent of all corporate bandwidth is taken up downloading YouTube videos. The next in line is Windows Updates, taking up 3.8 per cent of bandwidth.

Network Box analysed traffic to more than 19 billion URLs through its global network of security operations centres, over a five-month period.

The top five websites (by volume of traffic) visited from business addresses are:

1. Facebook 5.8%
2. Google 4.1%
3. Yimg (Yahoo’s image server) 3.1%
4. Yahoo 2.7%
5. Doubleclick 1.7%

The top five websites ranked by the bandwidth they use are:

1. YouTube 7.8%
2. Facebook 4.4%
3. Windows Updates 3.8%
4. Yimg (Yahoo’s image server) 2.8%
5. Google 2.7%

Simon Heron, Internet Analyst for Network Box, says: “Social media is as much a part of life as the telephone. Businesses have to be aware that their employees use Facebook at work. They should have systems in place to ensure that they are getting the best use they can from company resources. So it’s important that businesses use this information to set user policies and update security systems. IT teams must ensure employees only download files from safe sources, and educate them on the threat of malware from social sites.

“Interestingly, Windows Updates are the third heaviest user of bandwidth after YouTube – nearly four per cent of corporate bandwidth is being used just to fix software problems on Windows.”

For more information on security issues, visit Network Box, see Simon Heron’s blog; or follow him on Twitter.