Everyday behaviors can trigger significant risk to sensitive business information
By EDISON D. ONG
During this era of well-publicized data breaches, the results of a data security threat survey has indicated that “even those who should know better are not exempt from the everyday behaviors that can trigger significant risk to sensitive business information.”
The survey polled 417 individuals – including delegates at the RSA Conference in industry events in North and Latin America last year – who confessed to their work-related security behaviors and attitudes. The respondents work across a range of industries, with a heavy concentration within the financial and technology sectors. Almost half of the respondents’ job functions were in information technology.
The respondents polled in the insider threat survey of RSA, The Security Division of EMC are: 46% working in the financial services sector, 20% in the technology sector, 46% IT professionals, 11% executives, and 54% in companies with more than 5,000 employees.
The key findings of the survey are:
People do as they will, regardless of awareness of best security practices
The results of the survey show that employees are well aware of the restrictions placed upon them by their corporate IT departments, yet many often work around these controls in order to get their jobs done in a convenient and timely manner.
Of all respondents polled: 94% are familiar with their organizations’ IT security policies, yet 53% have felt the need to work around IT security policies in order to get their work done.
In response to a separate question, 64% frequently or sometimes send work documents to their personal email address in order to access and work on them from home.
http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO20090118145912.html