More business Internet traffic goes to Facebook than to any other website, according to a new report by managed security firm Network Box.
Network Box looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 and found that 6.8 percent of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, a one percent increase over the last quarter of 2009.
The report also found that more business bandwidth is taken up with YouTube videos than anything else: 10 percent of all corporate bandwidth is taken up watching YouTube videos, an increase of two percent since the fourth quarter of 2009.
"The figures show that IT managers are right to be concerned about the amount of social network use at work," said Simon Heron, Internet security analyst for Network box.
"There are two real concerns here: firstly that employees will be downloading applications from social networks and putting security at risk; and secondly the amount of corporate bandwidth that appears to be being used for non-corporate activity."
The main concern IT managers have about security in coming year is employees using applications on social networks while at work (43%). Thirty-six percent said they are concerned about malware passed via networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter, and employees clicking on links sent by their contacts on social networks.
The top five websites visited by businesses in Q1 2010 were:
1. Facebook – 6.8 per cent of all traffic
2. Google – 3.4 per cent of all traffic
3. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8 per cent of all traffic
4. Yahoo! – 2.4 per cent of all traffic
5. Doubleclick – 1.7 per cent of all traffic
The top five bandwidth busting websites are:
1. YouTube – 10 per cent of all bandwidth used
2. Facebook – 4.5 per cent of all bandwidth used
3. Windows Update – 3.3 per cent of all bandwidth used
4. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.7 per cent of all bandwidth used
5. Google – 2.5 per cent of all bandwidth used