Survey reveals 37% of workers would hand-over company secrets for £1m
Thirty seven percent of London workers would hand over their company secrets to a total stranger if they were offered a million pounds especially now that employee loyalty is at an all time low, with a third of workers saying they felt a lot less loyal towards their employers than they did a year ago. Researchers from Infosecurity Europe – Europe's largest IT security event, approached commuters in London railway stations earlier this year and asked them what it would take to tempt them to download and hand over sensitive company information to a stranger, offering incentives ranging from a 'slap up meal' to offers of over ten million pounds.
Of the 37% of workers who could be corrupted 63% would only hand over sensitive data for at least one million pounds, 10% would do it if their mortgage was paid off, 5% would do it for a holiday, 4% for getting rid of their credit card debt and 5% would do it for a new job. The surprised researchers couldn’t believe their ears when 2% of the workers admitted that they would hand over their company’s crown jewels just for a free slap up meal!
The types of information that the workers had access to included Customer Databases (83%); Business Plans (72%); Accounting Systems (53%); Human Resources Databases (51%); and IT Admin Passwords (37%).
Two thirds (68%) of employees think it is easy to sneak information out of their organisation and 88% of employees thought that the information that they had access to was valuable. More than half of the workers in the survey (55%) said they were more worried about losing their jobs than they were this time a year previously.
| "It's quite staggering that a third of people are open to bribery, although it's encouraging that 63% of workers are honest and wouldn't give anything away not even for a million pounds! However, you can't count on people's honesty to protect the assets of a company, it's down to an organisation to take steps to ensure their most valuable assets are locked down and protected, especially confidential customer data", said Tamar Beck, Group Event Director, Infosecurity Europe. "Criminals are very adept at finding the vulnerable workers who can be tempted into betraying their employers, therefore, organisations should ensure that they have trained their people to protect sensitive information and have adequate technology and processes in place to help them enforce security policies that comply with current regulation and legislation." |
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When the information asked for changed to credit card information, account details or security codes then employees became harder to tempt with 80% refusing to take the risk and wouldn't provide this information at any price. For the 20% of employees who would pass on credit card information, account details or security codes, 68% would only do it for a million pounds, 7% if their mortgage was paid off, and 15% for paying off their credit cards.
A poll is currently being conducted to gauge whether IT and security professionals consider that the Internet needs a cyber security organisation to oversee it – results currently stand at:
See www.infosec.co.uk to have your say!
Infosecurity Europe is the event that enables organisations to prepare for the potential onslaught on their information systems, it plays host to Europe's largest FREE educational programme where visitors have the opportunity to listen to a fantastic range of experts. Running for its 15th year from 27th – 29th April 2010 at Earls Court, London, Infosecurity Europe is Europe's number one Information Security event for Information Security professionals across Europe.
For more information please visit www.infosec.co.uk
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