Report shows employees to steal data

According to the ‘the global recession and its effect on work ethics’ survey by Cyber-Ark, 48 percent of respondents admitted that they would take company information with them if they were dismissed tomorrow.

A third of workers would steal data to help a friend get a job while 13 per cent would take access and password codes.

Of the respondents, 39 percent would download company information if they found that their job was at risk and 25 percent said that the recession has meant that they feel less loyal towards their employer. Alarmingly, 13 per cent would take access and password codes to allow access to the network once they’ve left the company and continue downloading information.

Cyber-Ark claimed that the recession is creating camaraderie amongst workforces, at the expense of their employers as 41 per cent confessed to have already taken sensitive data with them to their new position, whilst a third would pass on company information if it proved useful in getting friends or family a job.

The most desired information was customer and contact details for 29 per cent of respondents, then 18 per cent said that they would steal plans and proposals. Eleven per cent would take product information.

If we are to take anything out of this report, it is that organisations need to be open to make improvements to how they control and monitor access to vital business systems, even by those at the highest levels.

Hacker threat second to employee mistakes

New research from IDC and security vendor RSA, that included 400 top level executives, revealed that organisations are more likely to suffer from accidental data security leaks than malicious insider attacks.

The research shows that the accidental data leaks often cause more damage than insider attacks; giving reason to doubt the traditional assumption that theft is the highest cause. Most security leaks are accidents that occur simply when employees do not follow correct security protocol or misuse information accidentally.

The firms that participated in the poll reported that accidental data loss accounted for 6,244 of incidents; unauthorized people receiving privileged access to data resulted in 5.794 incidents of risk, and malware attacks that came from within the firms accounted for 5,830 incidents.

Internet Surfing Restricted for British MP’s

An Internet filter on the Parliament IT system blocks access to websites that contain “offensive or illegal content or are sources of malicious software”.

The policy emerged after an MP was unable to access the Daily Sport site.

“Because of the things they are trying to censor they may have made an assumption about this particular website,” said Lembit Opik, MP.

Guidance issued to all MPs in December 2007 warns that they have a duty to ensure the Parliamentary network is used properly “by themselves and their staff” and to avoid actions that “threaten the integrity of the system or bring it into disrepute”.

The aim is to protect security but also to “help to prevent users of the network from being exposed to inappropriate material”.

The web filtering system also “collects data related to user activity, including user names and all websites visited whether blocked or not and will be retained for a period of 12 months”, it adds.

MPs who try to access sites deemed inappropriate are presented with a screen asking them to contact the Commons authorities for permission to view the material.

Those who break the rules face being disconnected from the system by the Serjeant-at-Arms.

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