Collaboration encompasses the use of tools that allow employees to work together through social networking, instant messaging and video conferences.

The survey also found that a quarter of respondents will continue with plans for collaboration, in spite of security concerns. Just 15% were continuing with plans for collaboration having resolved security issues.

Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO of Webroot at the Infosecurity Europe exhibition said “This survey shows us that the majority of information security professionals have concern for the security issues brought about by collaboration. This is understandable, because although productivity gains from collaborative working can be substantial, it can leave organisations exposed.

“With the advent of interactive Web 2.0 technologies, malware purveyors have more opportunities to insert their programmes onto websites and spread them to users worldwide. However, we advise companies to embrace collaboration but deal with security in advance.”

Webroot promoted the benefits of their software as a service (SaaS) model at the Infosecurity Europe show. Paul Whittaker said that when a threat is detected, “our users are instantly updated. Everybody gets protection at the same time.”

In a recently announced partnership, Webroot will embed the ZixCorp email encryption service into its next release of Webroot’s email Saas.