Another school of thought is that Web 2.0 sites that promote social networking and multimedia content have some value to workers despite any distractions they might cause. Half of the 162 customers that security research firm and vendor Sophos polled between May 16 and 22 said that employees should be able to access MySpace and that the key message is that good productivity is the result of good management, whereas access to a wide variety of Web sites isn't necessarily to blame for poor productivity. One-quarter of the respondents to the Web-based poll were opposed to blocking access to MySpace because the effort would be too complicated and time consuming, while the rest of the respondents worried about employee "backlash" at having MySpace access taken away, meaning they might try to circumvent Web filters or try to access the site in some other way.
This doesn't mean that opening corporate networks up to social networking or gaming sites is a good idea. As end users become hip to more mainstream threats like phishing (does anyone still click on random e-mails from PayPal or financial institutions?), malware writers are building threats directly into Web sites that user frequent.
"Interactive Web sites have become a vector by which infections can occur," said Ron O'Brien, Sophos senior security analyst. In April alone, Sophos identified 245,790 Web pages hosting malicious code, and that total grows daily.
In March, Sophos issued an advisory to warn companies about the ongoing threat of malicious code being posted to MySpace, in particular the SpaceStalk spyware Trojan horse embedded in a QuickTime movie on the MySpace page of MAMASAID, a French rock band. SpaceStalk's JavaScript code downloaded from the Net additional malicious code onto users' computers to steal information.
Companies have to weigh carefully the benefits of how much rope they give their users. It was once debatable whether Web-based apps like VoIP, P2P networking, and IM had any business value, yet these emerging technologies have for the most part become a good fit in today's work environments. With the right amount of foresight and security precautions, the same might someday be said of MySpace and YouTube.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
