Social Media Apps Biggest Security Threat To Enterprises

New survey reveals which applications security professionals believe are worst at spreading malware

A new study from Gigamon has revealed that 17 percent of organisations are adding as many ten new applications into enterprise networks every day, however 14 percent do not have policies in place to manage their security which could be putting sensitive corporate data at risk.

The study, which was carried out at Infosecurity Europe and studied the attitudes of 217 IT professionals, also revealed that 26 percent of organisations have no idea how many applications are being added to their network each day, while 11 percent do not know if tools are deployed to manage their security.

“Today’s organisations are heavily dependent on applications, and employees will often use them to perform key parts of their job. However, it also means these applications can have access to sensitive corporate data which could put an organisation at risk if it fell into the wrong hands. Organisations should therefore treat applications as part of their own network and aim to have complete visibility of their functions. Security should always be paramount when new applications are being deployed,” said Ollie Sheridan, security engineer for EMEA at Gigamon.

The study also asked IT security professionals which applications they believe bring in the most malware to the enterprise. Social media applications were cited as the worst culprits, followed by television streaming apps, gaming apps and messaging apps.

The full top ten list of the applications that pose the biggest security risks to the enterprise include: