The Greynet threat
p2pnet.net News:- Greynets, real-time communications applications often introduced by end users and which use "highly evasive techniques to traverse the network," pose myriad network and information security risks because they provide vectors for malware, intellectual property loss, identity theft and compliance risks.
More people are adopting greynet apps, but little progress has been made toward combating greynet-related attacks, continues a new study.
"Eighty one percent of IT managers reported greynet-related attacks within the last six months, about the same rate as one year ago," says FaceTime, going on that the most common attacks continue to be from spyware and adware (75%), viruses and worms (57%), other malware (22%) and rootkits and keyloggers (22%).
"Further, the required repair and remediation as a result of these attacks is costly," says the report. "A typical organization is estimated to spend nearly $130,000 per year on average to repair damage from greynet-related attacks, while the largest companies are estimated to spend upwards of $350,000 per year repairing damage from greynet-related attacks due to higher incident rates."
Study findings say:
* Four in ten employees believe they have the right to install greynet applications on their work computer, and more than half the end users are at work locations where policies governing IM and P2P usage are disregarded (53 percent)
* The number of work locations where eight or more greynet applications are in use has doubled over the past 12 months, growing from 20 percent of locations one year ago to 41 percent today
* Seventy percent of end users have sent personal IMs from work, and 1 in 4 employees admitted to sending information about company plans, finances or password/login credentials via IM
* More than one-fourth of employees say they use IM in order to have "private, unmonitored communications," and if end users knew their IM communications were monitored, almost half (45 percent) would pay more attention to company guidelines while one fifth would pick their words more carefully (21 percent)
Consistent with last year’s results, "end users surveyed believe it is within their right to download the applications they deem necessary to do their jobs," says FaceTime.
"Half of the users surveyed had downloaded some type of greynet application in the past six months, and the top three greynet applications preferred by employees include streaming media, Web mail, and public instant messaging. In addition, about 40 percent of employees admit to downloading applications even when explicitly forbidden or unsanctioned by their IT department."
Also See:
FaceTime – GDell customer gets Windows refund, November 7, 2006
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