1 in 4 employees have gaming software on PCs. (Security).

More than ever before, office workers are evolving beyond Solitaire, turning to games such as Quake, EverQuest and Snood during work hours. More than half of corporate IT managers report that employees access online game sites at work, according to recent data from Websense Inc. and, one in four employees reports having installed games on their work computers. But employees are now bringing in unauthorised games on CDs or downloading free games via peer-to-peer networks, some of which have embedded malicious mobile code. It leads to increased demands on bandwidth and could lead to legal issues as a result of software being copied or stored illegally on the server.

The overall games audience is expected to grow 18 percent with 61 percent penetration in 2007, but PC gamers will-outnumber console gamers, according to Jupiter Research. Websense data shows that there are nearly 1,400 computer game applications worldwide, and more than 10 million game-related Web pages on the Internet.

To help companies manage workplace game playing beyond employee access to Web sites, Websense launched a employee Internet management (EN) platform that manages employee computing at the gateway, network and desktop levels. The product, Websense Enterprise v5, enables companies to manage employee access to game Web sites, peer-to-peer protocols that are used to download gaming packages and desktop game applications.

For more information about Websense Enterprise v5, as well as to view a new IDC white paper about emerging challenges beyond the browser, visit www.websense.com.