Offices around the country have had an official clampdown on Facebook use.

Sophos a leading security company reports 41% of Facebook users will divulge personal information, greatly increasing their susceptibility to identity theft.

Research from security firm Sophos shows that 50 per cent of workers aren’t able to access Facebook due to their employers being worried about the website affecting productivity and security. Sophos polled 600 workers altogether, 43 per cent of which claimed that their company is outright blocking the site using security controls, and 7 per cent of which say that there are policies in tow to stop workers from using the networking tool.

It’s not just employers who are worried about Facebook’s impact on working life, however. Sophos carried out another survey which found 66 per cent of workers to be worried about colleagues giving too much information away on the site, leading to possible identity theft and targeted phishing attacks.

Sophos found that a number of profiles on Facebook contain employment details which, the company warns, could be used together with other stolen data to commit corporate fraud or to gain access to company networks.

Graham Cluley at Sophos reckons that companies which do allow the site could do with talking to their employees about Facebook privacy settings, claiming learning the ins-and-outs could “save a lot of heartache later.”

Good news for Sophos, however, which has reported a rise in customers using its web control program to block out all those popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace.

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