Study: Facebook Is The Most Frequently Blocked Website At Work

Does your business allow Facebook access in the office, or disallow it? Either way, you've got plenty of company.

Facebook is both the most widely blocked site in enterprises today and the second most widely allowed site in enterprises today, according to a study (PDF) published today by OpenDNS, a provider of Internet navigation and security services.

"Overall, 2010 was all about social, and this trend is reflected in the data we’re seeing at OpenDNS," says OpenDNS Founder and CEO David Ulevitch. "Facebook is both one of the most blocked and the most allowed websites, reflecting the push/pull of allowing social sites in schools and the workplace.

"This trend was also apparent in the phishing data we analyzed, where Facebook and other websites focusing on social gaming were frequently the targets of online scammers," Ulevitch adds.

More than 14 percent of all enterprises that block websites on their networks choose to block Facebook, the study says.

Pornography is the most frequently blocked category of content, according to the study. The proxy/anonymizers category, which contains sites used to circumvent Web content filtering settings, was the next most popular category of content to block.

The top three most commonly blocked websites for business users are Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, OpenDNS says.

PayPal continues to be the most frequent target of phishing websites; it was targeted nine times more frequently than the next most frequent target, Facebook, the study says. Forty-five percent of all phishing attempts made in 2010 targeted PayPal.

Five of the top 10 most-phished brands -- Facebook, World of Warcraft, and Sulake Corp. (makers of the Habbo, Steam, and Tibia online games) -- are associated with online and social games.

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