Women more likely to infect PCs with Spyware--Survey

SAN DIEGO: Websense, Inc., a web security and web filtering productivity

software company, announced the first installment of Employee survey results of

its seventh annual Web@Work study, conducted by Harris Interactive in US.

The 2006 Web@Work Employee survey reveals that men are more likely than women

to engage in personal web surfing at work. Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of men

who access the internet from work admitted to accessing non work-related

websites during work hours versus 58 percent of women. Similarly, men are more

likely to spend more time on the Internet at work for both work-related and non

work-related tasks than women do. For example, men admit to spending 11.6 hours

on average per week on work-related websites and 2.3 hours per week on non-work

related websites. In comparison, women admit to surfing 9.0 hours on average on

work-related and personal sites and admit to spending only 1.5 hours per week on

non work-related sites only.

Men and women also vary on the types of non work-related websites they visit

in the workplace. For example, men are substantially more likely than women to

visit non work-related sites such as weather, sports, investment/stock, and

blogs-men are 1.15 times more likely than women to visit weather sites (81 per

cent of men versus 70 per cent of women), 2.3 times more likely than women to

visit sports sites (42 percent of men versus 18 per cent of women), 1.95 times

more likely than women to visit investment/stock purchasing sites (39 percent of

men versus 20 per cent of women), and 2.5 times more likely than women to visit

blogs (15 per cent of men versus 6 per cent of women).

More men than women view online pornography at work. Whether it was by

accident or on purpose, 16 per cent of men who access the Internet at work said

they had visited a porn site while at work, while only 8 percent of women had

done so. Of those that admitted to viewing pornography sites at work, 6 percent

of the men and 5 percent of the women admitted it was intentional.

The Employee survey also reveals that men and women hold different views

regarding web-based threats such as spyware and when to involve help desk to

remedy the situation. Women who visit websites containing spyware are more

likely than men to say that their work computer has been negatively impacted by

spyware. (45 percent of women versus of 35 percent of men surveyed). On that

same note, women who have visited websites containing spyware are more than

twice as likely as men to call their help desk or IT department if their

computer was infected with spyware-64 percent of women have called their IT

department for help whereas only 30 percent of men have done so.

“The results of 2006 Web@Work Employee survey illuminate some of the

differences between how men and women use the internet at work,” said Michael

Newman, vice president and general counsel, Websense, Inc. “However, one

significant similarity shown in the survey is that both genders can easily be

lured in by the internet for its sheer entertainment value or as a resource to

complete personal errands. Workplace internet solutions should balance employees'

needs for personal use of the web at work without draining overall productivity

or morale, all while keeping employees safe from new web-based security threats

such as spyware and phishing attacks.”

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