The majority of organisations within the UK have been the victim of a malware attack, and the business implications of these attacks are becoming increasingly serious. This is according to a recent survey of over 600 UK respondents, carried out by leading anti-spyware developer, Webroot Software Inc, in co-operation with market research solutions provider GMI.

The survey found that increased help desk time to repair spyware damage was the highest ranking enterprise complaint, with 45 percent of organisations saying it had effected their organisation in this way. Reduced employee productivity (32 percent) and disrupted business activities (31 percent) were also high-ranking complaints. 11 percent of companies felt that spyware had caused them to lose sales.

72 percent of companies surveyed had some form of desktop anti-spyware installed, however relying on this as a sole means of prevention can often invite more problems, explains Daniel Mothersdale, Webroot’s EMEA Director of Marketing, : “Although software is a major tool in preventing an organisation from being infected with spyware, education is also a key element of forming a strong defence. Many of the problems you encounter with spyware can be traced back to poor Internet surfing practices. Educating staff around safe browsing practices is much more cost effective than the amount of time help desks currently spend fixing spyware related complaints.”

Proposals for new data protection laws are currently being discussed by European Commissioners. The new rules would compel companies operating in Europe to notify regulators and customers of any security breach of data held by that company. Such announcements could have significant impacts on consumer confidence and could lead to long-term brand damage, according to Webroot.

“The UK is currently the highest spyware infected country within the EU and therefore these new regulations pose a significant challenge to British enterprises to have the best protection in place,” commented David Moll, CEO of Webroot. “Many organisations don’t seem to realise the impact of spyware attacks. What was once a minor inconvenience has developed into something that already has a major impact on a company’s bottom line, not only through simply increasing system downtime and support requests but also in the worst case through the theft of sensitive intellectual property. If these new regulations come in to effect in Europe, we could add damage to brand identity to this list.”

www.webroot.com

•Date: 10th Nov 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: ISM
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