Meet the Riskiest User

Intermedia, “The Business Cloud” recently issued its 2015 Insider Risk Report.  The report looked at the security habits of 2000+ office workers according to age, company role, industry and other groupings.   According to Intermedia, “the findings fly in the face of conventional wisdom:  The most tech savvy employees are the ones most likely to create risk.”  Here are some key facts from the report:

 

  • 97% of employees have access to some form of sensitive or confidential information and 93% admit to engaging in at least one form of poor data security.

 

  •  Surprisingly, of all the job roles surveyed, it was the people in IT who reported the poorest security habits, including 28% who admitted they had accessed systems belonging to previous employers after they left the company.

 

  • 23% of Millennials (18-34), 12% of Gen X (35-54) and 5% of Boomers (55+) said they would take data from their companies if it would positively benefit them.

 

These findings were observed in both large and small organizations and seemed more pronounced among tech companies.  Read the full report HERE.

What can you do?  IT security is not just for IT.  You can focus on eliminating correcting 5 risky behaviors which were identified as most common by Intermedia:

 

  • Insecure Password Practices. Using the same password for business and personal applications, sharing passwords and storing passwords insecurely.

 

  • Shared accounts

 

  • Insecure file storage and transfer practices. This would include uploading company files to personal computers or personal cloud storage accounts without IT knowledge.

 

  • The use of unauthorized “Shadow IT” such as Dropbox.

 

  • Ex Employee Access. Ex-employees can represent a risk of malicious attacks, theft of corporate information or unauthorized access to information leading to data breaches and reputational damage.

 

See the Intermedia Report for additional information.

 

Whether you are an IT professional, a manager or small business owner, IT security is your responsibility.  As a technology company Canyon Telecom assists its customer with the selection and deployment of technology to support their businesses.