At Infosec 2009, Sophos released their statistics regarding social networks sites and corporate exposure to these sites. According to the Sophos on-line poll, 50% of the respondents had been spammed on a social network site, phished on a social network site and sent malware via a social network site. Amazingly 40% have no defences in place. However Sophos senior technology consultant, Graham Cluely warns against total lockdown.

"The danger is that by completely denying staff access to their favourite social networking site, organisations will drive their employees to find a way round the ban - and this could potentially open up even greater holes in corporate defences."

Cluely also said, "As cybercriminals choose to exploit these sites for nefarious purposes, both innocent users and companies are finding themselves in the firing line. But until users wise up to the dangers, and firms begin to take precautionary measures to combat these threats, then the situation will intensify."

Unfortunately, the poll did not give much demographic information about the respondents or the size of the corporations that they belonged to (eg it appears that the 700 respondents could have come from anywhere).

For further reading:
- Sophos Report
- Security Vibes In Depth Article on Social Network User Defences
- Security Vibes In Depth Article on Social Network Technological Defences