Executives are torn over the use of social media in enterprises, accepting that it represents a critical area for growth, but afraid of its use in companies, a report published Tuesday concludes.

According to research by Clearswift, there has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of companies blocking access to social media sites, with 91 per cent of those doing so mainly concerned about security and data loss.

There has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of enterprises blocking access to social media sites compared with this time last year, according to a report from software security company Clearswift.

In last year the proportion of businesses restricting access to the services on the basis of security concerns has more than trebled, it found. In 2010 only 9 per cent of British companies had social networking bans in place, compared to 32 per cent now.

Viruses, loss of confidential data and fear of employees tooling around doing sweet FA on Twitter are the top reasons that employers give for putting the brakes on social media in the workplace.

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