Websense Overhyping Security Risks Of Personal Storage Sites
from the oh,-come-on dept
Websense has a long history of overhyping various "risks" online in order to sell more of their filtering software to employers who can't figure out how to hire trustworthy employees. They've put out plenty of press releases talking about the "shocking" number of companies that let their employees surf freely. They even tried to scare people into worrying that (oh my!) their workers were checking news websites on company time. Not surprisingly, they seemed to ignore studies that point out that letting employees surf freely has more benefits for companies than what it costs them. So, it's really no suprise to hear that they're now trying to warn employers of the "risks" of personal storage websites. They're pointing out that an employee can easily store confidential work information on these sites. However, as the Register points out, there are thousands of ways that the data can get out of the company - and if the employee wants to get it out, shutting down access to a personal storage site isn't going to do much at all. They even get someone at Websense to admit that it's really a people management issue - but he doesn't see anything wrong with Websense continuing to hype up the "threat". Based on this, Websense should be pushing a product that shuts off the entire internet - because, after all, an employee might (gasp!) email some company secrets outside the company walls.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
websense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]