Cyber Monday: Productivity Loss Top Concern | Channelnomics

?Tis the season for whopping deals, pop-up ads,?one-day discounts, cyber scams, mad rushes and limited inventory. With Cyber Monday looming, businesses are braced for the biggest anticipated fallout ? productivity loss.

For 59 percent of businesses, the imminent loss of precious employee hours outweighs concerns regarding the rise of malware and other threats delivered over the network. And for the channel, this means it?s also the season to ramp up application control and other productivity solutions, while adding a few security best practices to the mix for good measure.

The findings were sourced to a Dell SonicWall study regarding the impact of what is popularly known as Cyber Monday, arguably the largest online shopping day of the year. The first Monday after Thanksgiving emerged as the cyber-equivalent of Black Friday, when users return to work following the long weekend and hit online retailers and e-commerce sites ? often from the office or work-related computers ? to start their holiday shopping.

Users engage in online shopping, and typically at work, largely because of convenience. During Cyber Monday, however, the number of users that simultaneously bombard online shopping sites exponentially rises ? and this has a pretty hefty impact on businesses productivity, security and bandwidth.

The greatest concerns regarding this phenomenon: This year, 55 percent of businesses predict their employees will spend two to four hours a week throughout the holiday shopping season starting Monday ? and 63 percent expect a greater decrease in productivity compared with last year. Social media is expected to take more of a toll on corporate networks compared to last year, with shoppers visiting Facebook and other sites in search of Cyber Monday sales and deals. In the end, this could add up to a lot of dollars lost.

Security is still an issue, too. Historically, cybercriminals have taken advantage of high online traffic during holidays or global events to unleash scams, phishing attacks and malware ? and this year won?t be an exception. Despite the influx of cyberattacks this time of year, the Dell survey finds 68 percent of businesses regularly fail to identify a fraudulent attack on a corporate networks.

It definitely spells bad news for businesses, but Cyber Monday challenges also give the security channel an opportunity to roll up its sleeves and revisit customers with new solutions and best practices.

On the productivity front, it means introducing content filtering, application intelligence and control solutions designed to keep bandwidth usage at a minimum, while limiting or blocking users from non business-critical apps.

The same holds true when protecting against security threats. Partners can dust off a range of anti-phishing, antimalware,Web filtering and firewall solutions, bolstered by more advanced threat detection services.

It?s likely these solutions will keep users a little more on the straight and narrow when on an office PC.?However, another recent development that could affect corporate traffic on Cyber Monday is the dearth of personal mobile devices used in the workplace linked to bring-your-own-device trends.

While users have relied on desktop PCs for both personal and business functions, chances are they now have an iPad, iPhone, Android or other personal mobile device immediately at their disposal. While productivity may initially suffer, it?s more likely corporate bandwidth could be less affected than in years prior as users leverage these devices for personal holiday shopping, especially if they go outside the corporate network to do so.

If nothing else, the channel will have an opportunity to revisit tried and true security best practices with customers while occasionally taking remediation solutions off the shelf for those that don?t listen.

Source: http://channelnomics.com/2012/11/23/cyber-monday-productivity-security-top-concern/

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