Corporate Portals Face Security Issues
Security concerns for corporate portals are scrutinized in Yankee Group's new report, "Corporate Portals Open the Door to New Security Concerns," which was released Monday.
Yankee analysts caution that opening access to online resources creates a variety of security concerns even as it makes information easier to find and use. In addition, the easy access these
portals provide to corporate knowledge, experience and processes also opens the door to unwanted or unauthorized users, as well as provides greater access to network resources than necessary even for trusted users.
"Portals offer a great opportunity to make non-employee partners a part of the team by providing easy connections to information and staff," said Matthew Kovar, director of Yankee's security solutions and services research and consulting practice.
"Yet," he said, "security concerns mount as non-employees become users of the portal. The internal network must connect to the Internet, making it vulnerable to attack by any user throughout the world. While few Internet users are thieves or vandals, those who are can target any Web site on the Internet--interrupting its service, stealing its data, or using its connection to access the organization's internal network."
Home Internet Access on the Rise
Home Internet use grew by 30 million users during the second quarter of this year, according to Nielsen//NetRatings' "Second Quarter 2001 Global Internet Trends," which was released recently. This brings the estimated total number of users accessing the Web from home to 459 million.
"In terms of penetration levels, about 65 percent of households with telephones in South Korea, Sweden and Australia have PCs at home," said Richard Goosey, chief of measurement science and analytics for Nielsen //NetRatings.
Goosey said, "It is interesting that a number of well-developed European markets are way behind these levels: Germany with 48 percent, U.K. with 46 percent, Italy with 46 percent and France with 34 percent. Because of their relatively large population bases and their high disposable incomes, these markets present a great opportunity for PC manufacturers in the consumer market. Through increased marketing efforts they should be able to lift the penetration rates of the countries up to at least 50 percent, generating about 18 million sales."
More E-Mail Boxes Expected
Researchers predict a 138 percent increase in the number of new e-mail boxes, according to IDC, a global market intelligence and advisory firm. The prediction is included in IDC's third annual report, "E-Mail Usage Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005," which was released Sept. 17.
IDC attributes the growth of new e-mail boxes to three factors: Web services, wireless access and workers lacking e-mail.
"Wireless access through e-mail devices and network services will offer new ways for e-mail users to remain connected longer while on the move," said Mark Levitt, research director for IDC's collaborative computing program. "Workers such as deskless and mobile workers whose access to e-mail has not come easy will benefit from customized e-mail software, devices and hosted services."
The number of e-mails sent each day is also going through a growth spurt. IDC said by 2005 more than 36 billion person-to-person e-mails will be sent daily.
"E-mail usage is growing despite challenges from market substitutes like instant message and virtual workspaces that require a change in the way people work and often fall short of matching e-mail's ease of use and global reach," said Robert Mahowald, an IDC collaborative computing senior analyst.
Huge Online Spending Increase Reported in August
A joint report issued Tuesday by Forrester Research Inc. and Greenfield Online shows that August was a booming month for online purchases.
American consumers spent more than $4 billion buying products and services via the Internet, up from the $3.98 billion that was spent in July.
On average consumers each spent $273 while shopping online.
"It's impressive that online shopping made such a quick comeback after the big drop in June," said Christopher M. Kelley, an analyst at Forrester. "It appears that many consumers may have taken their tax refund checks and gone online to get ready for school or to buy a hard-earned gift for themselves."
Crawlers, Robots and Spiders Inflate Site Traffic Figures
Activity from Web crawlers, robots and spiders is inflating Web site traffic figures, according to data released Sept. 19 by WebSideStory.
Web crawler activity, accounting for up to seven percent of all Web page requests, is difficult to distinguish from human activity recorded on Web server log files and makes it difficult for Web operators and advertisers to get an accurate picture of site traffic.
"Robot activity has been the single biggest problem in providing accurate traffic figures to our advertisers," said Mark Heimberg, director of technical marketing for PennWell Publications, which uses WebSideStory's HitBox Enterprise real-time visitor analysis service.
"Our sales team would spend hours digesting log file reports to account for page view inconsistencies from one month to the next," Heimberg said.
PennWell turned to the HitBox service to get more accurate figures on actual Web visitors and eliminate inaccuracies caused by robots visiting its sites.