The Dangers of Employee Peer to Peer Gambling

http://www.onrec.com/content2/news.asp?ID=5016

The Dangers of Employee Peer to Peer Gambling
15/09/2004

Websense, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBSN), the world’s leading provider of employee internet management software, today announced that Websense Enterprise® can help organisations shut down peer-to-peer (P2P) gambling in the workplace, by blocking employee access to P2P betting services as well as traditional online gambling casinos. In addition, Websense Enterprise Client Policy Manager(tm) (CPM) eliminates the launch of all P2P betting services on employee computers.

Previously focused in Asia, Europe and Australia, P2P wagering is a growing phenomenon recently introduced into the UK workplace. New P2P gambling websites, such as Betfair.com and Betbug.com, appeal to betters because they are less expensive and faster than traditional online gambling sites. In addition, they allow players to bet directly against one another, instead of the house. Using a P2P betting service, a “cyber bookie” would suggest a wager and search for other players on a P2P network that may be interested directly in taking the bet.

“As evidenced by these new P2P betting sites, online gambling continues to evolve to be more enticing for its players,” said Geoff Haggart, VP of Websense, Inc. “However, whether it’s gambling or swapping copyrighted music files, P2P applications have very little legitimate business usage and can leave companies exposed to worms, spyware and other kinds of malicious code.”

Gambling on a P2P betting service using corporate internet resources can raise a multitude of threats for organisations, including a significant downside in terms of security, legal liability and reduced productivity. P2P wagering can carry serious security risks because P2P technology allows users to communicate directly with other users, bypassing a company’s firewall and potentially allowing virus-infected files, spyware, and other malicious code to slip past a company’s traditional peripheral security technologies.

Research indicates that more Americans gamble online than anywhere else in the world, according to an April 2003 paper on remote gambling by the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

“Websense has proved invaluable in protecting our network, gateway and desktops from emerging web-based threats such as online gambling and new peer-to-peer betting services,” said Rajiv Advani, IT Director of Billblass, a division of The Resource Group. “With Websense’s best-of-breed web and application filtering solutions, we’ve experienced higher employee productivity as well as lowered our legal liability and security risks.”

From a productivity standpoint, online gambling is especially dangerous in the workplace. According to the Center of Internet Studies, “gambling is a habit-forming, addictive means of pleasure for many adults. Couple that with the already-addictive nature of the Internet, and corporations could be in big trouble for creating an environment where these types of abuses can take place.”

Organisations can mitigate the risks of exposure to the security, productivity and legal liability threats associated with P2P betting services by implementing Websense Enterprise, which provides multilayered protection at the network, gateway, and desktop. Using Websense Enterprise, employees are blocked from accessing traditional online casinos as well as P2P betting services. In addition, CPM defines policies that block the launch of P2P applications at the desktop, and on laptops-whether online or offline.

P2P gambling websites are categorized in the Websense URL database, which now includes more than 7.1 million websites. Additionally, Websense has identified and categorized more than 522,000 software executable files in its CPM database, enabling management of unauthorized or harmful applications on the desktop, and has built a comprehensive database of common network protocols to enable filtering of P2P file sharing, streaming media, instant messaging and other non-http traffic.

http://www.websense.com

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