12 February 2009 - A report released today by Forrester Research, and commissioned by Adobe, has highlighted the fact that knowledge workers working in companies remain more than a little worried about the security of Web 2.0-based collaborative working systems.

"The Forrester research confirms the findings of research announced at the SchmooCon 2009 conference in Washington this week, which found that security on social networking sites is significantly wanting, despite the take-up of the technology by Internet users," said Michael Callahan, Credant's senior vice president.

"This conclusion, from researchers Nathan Hamiel and Shawn Moyer, has been confirmed by a Forrester report into knowledge worker collaboration, which found that the take-up of Web 2.0 services within companies is a lot lower than many people think," he added.

According to Callahan, the Forrester report reveals that only 15 per cent of European knowledge workers make use of Instant Messaging and just 13 per cent use Web conferencing.

Delving into the figures, he says, reveals that whilst 47 per cent of respondents are confident about the security of sharing e-data within their organisations, only 21 per cent are confident when sharing e-data outside of their company.

"These figures, extracted from 3,000 survey respondents, clearly show that company staff remain concerned about the security of Web 2.0 technologies and allied forms of sharing data with colleagues outside of their organisation," said Callahan.

According to Credant's senior vice president, this analysis is confirmed when you look at Hamiel and Moyer's research, revealed at the ScmooCon 2009 conference in Washington earlier this week.

Moyer, he says, summed up the situation when he described social networking sites as "a perfect storm of social engineering and bad programming," and adding that Web 2.0 technology is now a launch pad for attacks against Internet users.

"More than anything, these two transatlantic research reports confirm our observations within Credant that companies are very wary of Web 2.0 technologies and the security loopholes they create," he said.

"The good news is that there are security solutions out there that can solve most, if not all, of the loopholes that these new technology platforms create. Central to this, we believe, is the use of powerful encryption. Once companies start to use these technologies, they will be able to effectively reap the benefit of Web 2.0 systems," he added.

For more on the SchmooCon research findings: http://tinyurl.com/d8q5ez

For more on the Adobe/Forrester research:

http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/090210_Adobe_Forrester.html