Press Releases

Majority of US Corporations See Spyware as Threat to Intellectual Property, Personally Identifiable Information

Lack of Confidence Prevails over Ability to Detect, Prevent, Remove Insidious Programs

Elk Rapids, Mich. – November 13, 2006 – According to a new study by privacy and information management research firm the Ponemon Institute, 62 percent of corporate IT security professionals rank spyware infections as the number one threat to the integrity of intellectual property and customers’ personally identifiable information. An additional 18 percent believe spyware’s primary threat to be loss of productivity.

The study, entitled Survey on the Corporate Response to Spyware, was sponsored by enterprise spyware management company Mi5 Networks and derived from a survey of 479 U.S.-based information security professionals.

The study also reveals a prevailing lack of confidence on the part of security professionals to detect, prevent, and remove spyware infections.

• 47 percent of respondents said their companies were rarely or not effective at detecting spyware threats, 41 percent were rarely or not effective at removing spyware, and 35 percent were rarely or not effective at preventing spyware infections.
• Only 19 percent of respondents said their companies were effective or very effective at detecting spyware threats, 34 percent were effective or very effective at removing spyware, and 40 percent were effective or very effective at preventing spyware.
• While 83 percent of respondents said their companies had active day-to-day spyware prevention programs in place, only 24 percent of those companies reported the use of a technology-based spyware detection/prevention solution.
• At 98 percent, firewalls were identified as the most prevalent security technology in place to guard against the spyware threat despite the fact that most spyware is written to bypass firewall protections.

“Software designed to sneak onto corporate networks and plunder sensitive information assets is a serious threat to data integrity, and our research shows that, while the authors of spyware continue to innovate in an effort to infect corporate networks, companies are not keeping pace,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. “Particularly in an age when more and more applications are moving to the web, the risk of infection is very high, the products and strategies needed to address the problem must reflect the true nature of the threat.”

"This research shows thin defenses towards a rapidly growing threat,” said Doug Camplejohn, CEO of Mi5 Networks. “Corporate executives rank spyware as a top problem, yet few have implemented defense-in-depth the way they have for viruses. We expect this to change quickly as executives realize that spyware has morphed from time-sucking adware to intellectual-property-sucking crimeware.”

About Mi5 Networks

Mi5 Networks is the leading provider of anti-spyware gateway appliances. Mi5 offers the most scalable and most complete solutions for auditing, preventing and removing spyware from enterprise PCs. Mi5 allows companies to reduce risk of confidential data loss from crimeware, and reduce IT time and money spent cleaning adware-crippled PCs. Mi5 Networks is a privately held company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, go to www.mi5networks.com or call 888-ANTI-SPY.

About The Ponemon Institute

The Ponemon Institute^© is dedicated to advancing responsible information and privacy management practices in business and government. To achieve this objective, the Institute conducts independent research, educates leaders from the private and public sectors and verifies the privacy and data protection practices of organizations in a variety of industries. Copies of the Survey on the Corporate Response to Spyware are available upon request through the Ponemon Institute and Mi5Networks.

Media Inquiries

Ponemon Institute
research@ponemon.org
978-597-0342

Mi5 Networks
nico@montaramountain.com
650-465-0943