10 Common Risks Employees Make that put Data at Risk

Cisco announced the findings for a new study about data loss and its sources. The survey, conducted by InsightExpress of more than 2000 employees, outlines 10 common risks and mistakes employees make that put data at risk. The study, which was conducted across 10 countries, also found that behavioral risks of employees can vary by country and culture. 100 employees and 100 IT professionals were surveyed in each country.

The study was commissioned in order to understand the risks of an increasingly distributed and mobile business force. With the lines between work life and personal life blurring on a global scale, there are new risks. The collaborative tools that make this type of workforce possible also pose new challenges. Given that security is not just about technology, but about people and their behavior, this is a very interesting examination of the behavioral side of risks to data loss. The results could help businesses better tailor their security policies.

The 10 most noteworthy risks and mistakes by employees were:

1. Altering security settings on computers – 20% of employees bypass IT policy to access unauthorized websites
2. Use of unauthorized applications – 70% of IT professionals said unauthorized applications and websites resulted in as many as half of the data loss incidents
3. Unauthorized network/facility access - 39% of IT professionals said they have dealt with an employee accessing unauthorized parts of a company’s network or facility
4. Sharing sensitive corporate information – 24% of employees admit to verbally sharing sensitive information
5. Sharing corporate devices – 44% of employees share work devices with non-employees
6. Blurring of work and personal devices, communications – nearly two thirds of employees use work computers daily for personal use – music downloads, banking, blogging, chat rooms, personal email
7. Unprotected devices – at least one in three employees leave computers logged on and unlocked when away from their desk. Laptops often are left on desks without logging off.
8. Storing logins and passwords – one in five employees store login / password information on their computer or write them down near their computer
9. Losing portable storage devices - 22% of employees carry corporate data on portable storage devices
10. Allowing “tailgating” and unsupervised roaming – 13% of employees allow non-employees to roam around their offices unsupervised, 18% have allowed unknown people into corporate facilities

Some of these figures have been broken down by country in a great analysis here.

Check out more here:

• Data Leakage Worldwide: Common Risks and Mistakes Employees Make – Summary

Data Leakage Worldwide: Common Risks and Mistakes Employees Make [pdf]

Via network world