According to a new report more business internet traffic goes to social networking sites than anywhere else. And the figure is increasing.

An analysis of internet traffic by managed security company, Network Box, looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010. The report revealed that 6.8% of all business internet traffic goes to Facebook, which is increase of 1% over the same time last year.

The study also revealed that more business bandwidth (rather than hits) is taken up by YouTube videos than anything else. 10% of all corporate bandwidth is thanks to YouTube videos, which is an increase of 2% since 2009.

When 250 IT managers were asked about their biggest security concerns, the top answer was "employees using applications on social networks" while at work. 36% of respondents were concerned about malware passed via networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter.

The top five websites visited by businesses in Q1 2010 were:

• Facebook - 6.8% of all traffic
• Google - 3.4% of all traffic
• Yimg (Yahoo!'s image server) – 2.8% of all traffic
• Yahoo! – 2.4% of all traffic
• Doubleclick – 1.7% of all traffic

The top five bandwidth heavy websites were:

• YouTube – 10% of all bandwidth used
• Facebook – 4.5% of all bandwidth used
• Windows Update – 3.3% of all bandwidth used
• Yimg (Yahoo!'s image server) – 2.7% of all bandwidth used
• Google – 2.5% of all bandwidth used

Simon Heron, internet security analyst for Network Box, said, “The figures show that IT managers are right to be concerned about the amount of social network use at work. There are two real concerns here: firstly that employees will be downloading applications from social networks and putting security at risk; and secondly the amount of corporate bandwidth that appears to be being used for non-corporate activity."