A new survey conducted by independent research house e-Media, which surveyed over 250 IT managers in UK organisations, reveals that sales staff are considered the worst offenders in consuming business network bandwidth for non-work related activities.

The survey asked which group out of sales, marketing, senior management and remote workers were most likely to consume network bandwidth on non-work related activities. The consensus of opinion of both network managers and security managers placed sales staff at the top of the list, with 43% of network managers and 34% of security managers listing them as the key offenders, followed in second place by marketing managers.

Remote and branch workers were considered the least likely group to waste bandwidth on non-work related activities. Unfortunately they were also found to be the highest security risk, with 50% of network managers and 48% of security managers naming them as most likely to introduce malware.

Remote workers are also most likely to suffer from poor application performance, with 57% of security respondents and 44% of network managers claiming that group comprised the most regular complainers about poor Internet and application delivery over the Wide Area Network (WAN).