Companies’ efforts to protect their businesses from cyber attacks have been thwarted by employees, as a new report shows that about 9 out of 10 employees intentionally breach their employer’s data policies. 60% of businesses are likely to have experienced a security breach without even knowing.
The CEB report revealed that despite security measures taken to adapt to the recent influx of devices at work, the loss of a company mobile phone or tablet has proved to be the biggest threat.
The company also conducted a survey involving 165,000 employees, and reported that 93% of workers intentionally disregarded security policies, with senior executives revealed to be the worst offenders.
CEB senior research director Jeremy Bergsman explained that people outside IT departments often have a poor grasp of the risks involved, and that correct processes were often too complicated for employees to carrying out.
“In order to get employees to do the right thing you need to make it as easy as possible to do,” Bergsman explains. “Most people are just trying to get their jobs done, that’s why they break policy.”
Around a third of the surveyed staff also confessed to writing down important passwords on post-it notes and scraps of paper, allowing them to be lost or stolen easily. Other frequent errors included saving copies of confidential documents onto USBs as well as sharing passwords with colleagues.
Mobile trends such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) allow employees to use their own phones, tablets and laptops for work, making it more difficult than ever to protect company data, despite revised security policies that reflect the changes in the way staff work.
Do these findings ring true in your organisation? Let us know below.
Image: QUOI Media
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