Office Workers Confess How They Let Security Slide

When office workers are asked to self-report anonymously on their work-related security behaviors and attitudes, a snapshot emerges that may make IT workers cringe.

The research, conducted in on-the-street surveys in Boston and Washington by RSA in November and published in a report titled “The Confessions Survey,” (PDF) found that 53 percent of respondents who work for the private sector access work e-mail via a public computer such as at an Internet café, airport kiosk, hotel or the like. The same is true of 51 percent of government employees.

Sixty-eight percent of enterprise workers leave work carrying a mobile device—such as a laptop, smart phone or USB flash drive—that holds sensitive job-related information, including customer data, Social Security numbers or company financials. That’s also true for 58 percent of government workers.

It’s not that these people work for organizations that don’t have security policies or training. In fact, 97 percent of those surveyed who work for the government report that they’re familiar with IT security policy, as are 81 percent of enterprise workers. Of government workers, 92 percent say that their employers provide security best practices training, as do 69 percent of enterprise workers.

Rather than ignorance regarding proper security procedures, what the research reflects is that a substantial number of users—35 percent enterprise, 34 percent government—feel that they have to take security shortcuts to get their jobs done.

Unfortunately, that weakens security profiles. “These ‘innocent’ insiders can unwittingly initiate data exposures of extraordinary scope and cost through their ordinary, everyday behavior, whether through carelessness, working around security measures or following inadequate security policies,” the report says.

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