According to recent data released by ScanSafe (News - Alert), when working outside the office, employees using roaming laptops are much more likely to try to access illegal file sharing sites, porn sites and other questionable content putting employers at risk of legal liability and exposure to malware.

 

In March 2008, ScanSafe processed 8 billion Web requests. The analysis confirmed that roaming workers visit these websites significantly more when they are outside the office. The data reveals that roaming workers visit the Illegal file sharing sites 8.5 times more than their colleagues in the office.

 

The company also said that these workers visited porn sites 2.5 times more, extreme Web sites (sites with extremely graphic content) 5.2 times more, and illegal activities sites (for example, sites with information on building explosives) 3.9 times more than their on site colleagues. However, remote employees are less likely to visit banking sites when they are out of the office. In fact, roaming employees are 66 percent less likely to visit an online banking site.

 

Dan Nadir (News - Alert), vice president of product strategy at ScanSafe said in a statement that it’s no surprise that Web browsing habits change when employees are outside of the physical confines of their office and away from the watchful eye of supervisors and colleagues.

 

Nadir pointed out that what is surprising is that there is such a huge increase in requests for what most organizations would deem highly offensive sites and in some cases illegal content — including the download of copyrighted material. An organization could be liable if their employees are using a corporate-issued laptop to download illegal music files from home.

 

A large number of companies are not securing Web use for their remote workers because extending security solutions for roaming laptop users is complex, difficult to maintain, expensive, and does not offer full ‘roaming’ protection.

 

ScanSafe is a large global provider of Web Security-as-a-Service, ensuring a safe and productive Internet environment for businesses. Earlier this year, ScanSafe launched Anywhere+, a software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) Web security that provides real-time protection from malware and enforcement of acceptable Internet usage policies for all users surfing the Web regardless of their location.