Websense Overhyping Security Risks Of Personal Storage Sites

Overhype

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.