A report has shown that businesses are placing too much trust in their employees when it comes to safeguarding company data.
How safe is your data? Which is more secure? Keeping important information in paper files or electronically?
Three-quarters of UK employers surveyed by OnePoll for security company LogRhythm said they had no enforceable systems to prevent employees gaining unauthorised access to company data in electronic format.
Some 80% said they did not believe any of their employees would view or steal confidential information, yet a poll of employees showed 23% had accessed or taken confidential data from their workplace.
In fact, one in ten employees admitted they access confidential data regularly.
Naturally that could mean trouble for your Company when an employee resigns, because electronic documents are both easy to copy and portable. This of course makes them more prone to theft than paper documents.
The biggest target is confidential data relating to colleague’s salaries and bonuses with 94% saying they can access such data without their firm’s knowledge.
How safe is your data?
Employee data theft can apply to any type of business? And employees who quit or are fired often take confidential business data with them. Yet surprisingly few companies have an internal data protection policy nor do they regularly change their system passwords.
Dave Taylor, managing director of Stockport’s IT business Amshire said: “The lesson here is, to protect your data before any one leaves. This could include any of the following:
- Your Customer Database
- Financial Records
- Email Lists
“When an employee leaves, I would recommend that you prevent them from accessing their account, setting the account for review and save all relevant and/or necessary files. Deletion of the account could be carried out later.
“Whilst naturally of course some employees will argue that they need access to their personal files before departing, it is not required. Any information located on a Company computer becomes the property of the Company.”