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Companies must remain vigilant to security
risks during the economic downturn as
increasing financial pressures could turn
employees into data thieves. This is the
stark conclusion of two new surveys
published by McAfee and the Ponemon
Institute.
42 per cent of IT decision makers rated
laid-off workers as the biggest security
threat
The McAfee-sponsored report found that as
unemployment figures continue to rise, more
than 42 per cent of the IT decision makers
questioned felt that laid-off employees
represented the biggest IT security threat
of the economic slump, higher than the risk
of external data thieves, which they rated
at 39 per cent.
Increased crime rates have always been an
unfortunate side-effect of recession and in
this new digital age companies are being
reminded that it has never been easier for
disgruntled employees to escape with company
databases that would make them more
attractive to new prospective employers.
Tim Shimeall, an analyst at Carnegie Mellon
University’s CERT Network Situational
Awareness Group or CERT/NetSA commented:
“Managing insider threats is difficult. With
more sophisticated technologies at their
fingertips and increased access to data, it
has become easier for current employees and
other insiders, such as contractors,
consultants, suppliers and vendors, to steal
information.”
More than half of employees admit to
stealing confidential data
This analysis is supported by the results of
a Ponemon Institute survey published in
February 2009. In this poll, which
questioned employees who had lost their jobs
in 2008, more than half (59 per cent)
admitted to stealing confidential company
information, such as customer contact lists.
The results also showed that if the
respondents’ companies had implemented
better data loss prevention policies and
technologies, many of those instances of
data theft could have been prevented.
Further survey finding included:
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