City Nickers
An poll conducted by InfoSecurity Europe has found that 37% of employees working in the City of London said they would steal sensitive data from their employer if they were offered enough money. Researchers from the security firm questioned 600 commuters in the London Underground on matters of company information and job security and discovered a worried workforce, a majority of whom were willing to sell out for cash. Although not for peanuts.
Of those who would divulge sensitive information, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Square Mile workers said they would not do so for less than £1 million. Ten percent and 4% respectively said they would exchange information if their mortgages or credit card bills were paid off. At the other end of the scale 2% revealed their price would be a “slap-up meal”.
Of the respondents 83% said they have access to customer databases, 72% to business plans, 53% can get into accounting systems, and 37% have IT administrative passwords. Sixty-eight percent of workers said it wouldn’t be difficult to smuggle information out of their company while 88% thought the information they can access is “valuable”.
Behind these figures lies a deterioration of staff loyalty over the past year. More than half of the workers in the survey (55%) said they are more worried about losing their jobs than they were this time last year. One-third said they feel “a lot” less loyalty to their employers than they did a year ago.
Said Tamar Beck of Infosecurity Europe: “Even in the current downturn, British workers are still basically very honest, but this cannot be relied upon by organisations to protect valuable company information and confidential customer data. Criminals are very adept at finding vulnerable workers who can be tempted into betraying their employers. Organisations should therefore ensure that they have trained their people to protect sensitive information.”
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