Employers leaving doors wide open for sensitive data

Its survey (among 200 senior IT professionals) shows that it is currently very unlikely that anyone would stop them – three quarters of companies have no security in place to prevent competitive information walking right out of the door. Indeed, 85% of employees admitted that they could easily download sensitive data and take it with them to their next jobs, in-spite of 74% of these companies having a policy that specifically states that company personnel are not allowed to take company information out of the office. Laptops are no longer the big problem: USB sticks are the preferred mechanism. A full 81% of people take files from work to use at home using USB sticks, and 33% routinely store work data this way. Martin Allen, for Check Point, says “USB sticks are now more popular than ever. Many can now carry 16Gb around with them in their pockets, which compares with 640 reams of paper. “Companies spend millions on their security and just forget about the fact that millions of pounds worth of valuable data is going walk about on people’s key rings and a great deal are very happy to download information to take with them to their next job. “Without being too draconian our advice is to lock down computers with vital information and make sure you centrally control USB sticks by supplying them to your staff with mandatory encryption in place. That way they can freely use them, keeping the data safe at all times.”