Accessing and downloading content from Facebook and YouTube while at work still accounts for more corporate web activity and bandwidth usage than from any other sites, according to new figures from managed security company Network Box.

The managed security services company, specialising in Unified Threat Management (UTM), continuously defends the networks of its customers using PUSH technology to instantaneously update protection from twelve Security Operations Centres spread across the globe.

In 2010, Facebook was responsible for 7.9 per cent of the URLs going through the Network Box, and 4.7 per cent of the bandwidth. That was dwarfed by YouTube (at 11.4 per cent of bandwidth). Even Microsoft Windows Update at 0.7 per cent of URLs and 3.0 per cent of bandwidth stands out.

“It is amazing to think that much bandwidth is required just to fix software problems in Windows. Symantec also appears in the top 20 list of bandwidth users,” said Mark Webb-Johnson, CTO of Network Box Corporation.

In 2010, Network Box blocked 1,143,378 websites based on company content filtering policy enforcement, with 40,653,345 website URLs visited over the year - up 39.1 per cent and 49.8 per cent compared with 2009.

“The growth in bandwidth, usage, and in particular web usage continues; nearing 50 per cent growth year-on-year. Fueled by cloud-based apps, social media, and mobile, the pressure on IT departments with respect to bandwidth and web usage, continues to grow,’” said Webb-Johnson.

The top 20 websites (by the number of hits) visited from business addresses in 2010 were:

  Site %HITS
#1 fbcdn.net 4.70%
#2 google.com 3.30%
#3 facebook.com 3.20%
#4 yimg.com 2.90%
#5 yahoo.com  2.30%
#6 doubleclick.net 1.70%
#7 google-analytics.com 1.30%
#8 msn.com 1.20%
#9 gstatic.com 1.10%
#10 on.cc 1.10%
#11 news.com.au 1.00%
#12 nextmedia.com 0.90%
#13 live.com 0.80%
#14 microsoft.com 0.70%
#15 windowsupdate.com 0.70%
#16 aastocks.com 0.70%
#17 theage.com.au 0.70%
#18 qq.com 0.60%
#19 bbc.co.uk 0.60%
#20 google.com.au 0.60%

The top five websites ranked by the bandwidth they used were:

  Site %SIZE
#1 youtube.com 11.40%
#2 fbcdn.net 3.00%
#3 windowsupdate.com 3.00%
#4 yimg.com 2.80%
#5 google.com 2.40%
#6 apple.com 2.30%
#7 adobe.com 1.80%
#8 facebook.com 1.70%
#9 symantecliveupdate.com   1.60%
#10 microsoft.com 1.30%
#11 yahoo.com 1.30%
#12 nextmedia.com 1.10%
#13 rapidshare.com 0.90%
#14 mediafire.com 0.90%
#15 no-ip.org 0.80%
#16 hotfile.com 0.70%
#17 edgesuite.net 0.70%
#18 2mdn.net 0.60%
#19 gstatic.com   0.50%
#20 megaupload.com 0.50%

Source: Network Box (www.network-box.com)