Weak Security Practices Endanger Enterprises

By Samuel Greengard

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Weak Security Practices Endanger Enterprises

Poor security practices—such as shadow IT, ineffective control of system access, and employees who are willing to steal passwords—are threatening enterprises.
Poor Password Hygiene

65% of the workers surveyed admitted to using a single password for all their applications.
Sharing Isn't Caring

Globally, about one-third of the employees surveyed share passwords with their co-workers.
Sold Out

26% of all the workers surveyed and 20% of the U.S. workers would sell their passwords to an outside organization.
Cheap Date

Globally, 44% of the respondents who said they would sell their passwords would do so for less than $1,000. In the U.S., the figure was 40%.
Getting Personal

84% of the respondents expressed concern that their personal information is being shared.
Breached

About 32% of the respondents globally have been affected on a personal level by recent data breaches. In the U.S., 44% have been affected.
Unauthorized Access

One in three employees admitted to purchasing a SaaS application without IT's knowledge, a 55% uptick over last year.
Maximum Exposure

More than 40% of the respondents said they still had access to a variety of corporate accounts after leaving their last job.
Bad Intentions

26% of the employees admitted to uploading sensitive information to cloud apps with the specific intention to share that data outside the company.
Repeat Offenders

70% of those who said they upload sensitive documents to the cloud to share them outside the company do that on a regular basis.
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Over the last few years, cyber-security vulnerabilities and threats have grown rapidly, and addressing them has become infinitely more complex. At this point, it is obvious that it's not a question of whether a breach will occur, but when. Inboxes, Web pages, databases and more are all under heavy assault. Worse, a breach has growing economic consequences for companies large and small. It can damage a brand's image and can also hemorrhage money. A recent report from SailPoint, "2016 Market Pulse Survey: Weak Security Practices Leave Organizations Exposed," paints a disturbing picture of the current situation. The study of 1,000 office workers globally found that a shocking number of them are willing to steal and sell passwords to third-party organizations (in many cases, for less than $1,000). Another problem is that organizations are slow to cut off systems access when an employee leaves. In addition, shadow IT, which may circumvent security controls, is rampant. According to the report, "No company is safe from attacks, and the method by which information is taken is slowly changing. The commonality across almost every breach is that hackers are now targeting the weakest link in the security infrastructure: people." Here's a look at some of the report's key findings.

This article was originally published on 2016-05-20

Samuel Greengard writes about business and technology for Baseline, CIO Insight and other publications. His most recent book is The Internet of Things (MIT Press, 2015).

Weak Security Practices Endanger Enterprises

Weak Security Practices Endanger Enterprises

Poor Password Hygiene

Sharing Isn't Caring

Sold Out

Cheap Date

Getting Personal

Breached

Unauthorized Access

Maximum Exposure

Bad Intentions

Repeat Offenders