The biggest threats to security are sitting next to you

Survey finds that careless employees, accidents account for most data losses

  • By Kevin McCaney
  • Apr 16, 2010

Information technology administrators rightly worry about outside threats to their networks and information, but they say the biggest threats come from inside, often as a result of accidents or carelessness by employees.

A recent survey by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Microsoft and RSA, backs up those fears. Forrester surveyed 305 high-level IT decision-makers worldwide, asking them, among other things, what types of security breaches they had experienced. Nearly 58 percent of the incidents were the result of an employee losing a computing device or accidentally posting sensitive information. A sample of the results:

The Numerator

Click for larger image. Source: Forrester Consulting

About the Author

Kevin McCaney is a former editor of Defense Systems and GCN.

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