Posted by Mike Sachoff

The increase in social networking and mobility trends is presenting challenges to companies’ network security, disaster planning and business continuity, according to a new study from AT&T.

Two-thirds (65%) of all executives plan on investing in new technologies in 2009. Investment will be focused on new equipment, a variety of software, storage and security updates.

When it comes to IT spending for this year, forty percent of executives said that their IT budgets are expected to be lower this year, while nearly a quarter (24%) indicated their budgets will be higher.

Three out of four executives are concerned about the increased use of social networking capabilities’ potential impact on network security. Forty-four percent allow employees to access social networking sites. However, hacking continues to be listed as the biggest security risk to companies (30% compared with 3% for social networking).

Sixty-seven percent of executives indicate that wireless network capabilities are part of their business continuity plan. In addition, nearly half (46%) said that mobile devices play a major role in their plan’s considerations.

“In today’s business environment, connectivity cannot be disrupted, which is why business continuity planning and disaster recovery efforts are paramount,” said Bill Archer, chief marketing officer – AT&T Business Solutions.

“The top three lessons learned by the executives we surveyed who have experienced a disaster include: having a plan in place is critical; increase back-up systems to ensure no data loss; and have multiple means of communication available.

Tags: AT&T, Social Networking

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Network. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.