IT pros take more security risks than the average office worker

High Risk

A whopping 93 percent of office workers engage in some form of unsafe online habits that could jeopardize their employer or their customers, a new report has shown.

The report, entitled 2015 Insider Risk Report, was done by Intermedia and it exposes the online security habits of more than 2,000 office workers in both the U.K. and the U.S.

There’s a sense of irony in the report, which says that IT experts, those who know the most and those who are tasked with keeping the company secure -- they are much more likely to engage in risky behaviors than your average company Joe.

The report says that 32 percent of IT professionals have given out their login/password credentials to other employees (compared to 19 percent across all respondents), while 28 percent of IT pros said they have accessed systems belonging to previous employers after they left the job (compared to only 13 percent among all respondents)

Furthermore, 31 percent of IT pros said they would take data from their company if it would positively benefit them -- nearly three times the rate of general business professionals

"These kinds of practices create risks that include lost data, regulatory compliance failures, data breaches, eDiscovery complications, ex-employee access, and even out-and-out sabotage by a disgruntled current or former employee", Intermedia says in a follow-up press release.

Intermedia’s report also includes data across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance and legal services, as well as across job functions. Additionally, it examines security habits across age group, company size and job tenure.

The full 2015 Insider Risk Report can be found on this link.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo credit: Olivier Le Moal / Shutterstock

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