@Risk

Last month, I reported that many companies are struggling to keep pace with the compliance and risk policies necessary for effective social media governance.

Now, HP has released new global research indicating that organizations also face increased threats from an even more fundamental policy and procedures issue: poor control and oversight of sensitive and confidential workplace data.

According to the new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, many companies say they have well-defined policies for individuals with privileged access rights to specific IT systems. However, almost 40 percent were unsure about enterprise-wide visibility into specific rights, or whether those with privileged access rights met compliance policies.

The survey, which focused on more than 5,000 IT operations and security managers across the US, the UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Spain, also found that: (more…)

How careful are employees when it comes to IT security?

Apparently, most aren’t careful, at all. What’s more, most aren’t really concerned whether or not IT policies are followed.

Take a look at these survey results. IT security expert Avira polled nearly 1,000 of its users in September and found that:

• Only 38.95 percent of those participating in the study said they adhere to security policies designed to protect their company.
• About the same amount (35.42 percent) admitted there are security policies in place at their business, but that they didn’t feel that anyone really cared whether those policies were followed or not.
• The remaining 25.63 percent said they see security as a system administrator’s responsibility and not an employee concern. (more…)

Email is fundamental to business communication.

But is this commonplace, everyday electronic correspondence a threat to your company’s data security and regulatory compliance?

It very well could be, and according to a recent study by Zix Corporation and Ponemon Institute,  IT professionals are growing increasingly concerned about these risks, especially now that more and more  business is conducted outside the office using mobile devices.

The survey, which received feedback from 830 IT and IT security practitioners, as well as IT compliance, legal and other specialists, found that: (more…)

Smartphones are embedded into today’s corporate culture. But, if you use your smartphone for both business and personal purposes, you may be putting your company at risk.

A new study from AVG Technologies found that most people are surprisingly indifferent to the many serious security risks associated with the storage and transmission of sensitive data on iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices. For example: (more…)

International business travel is now a routine part of corporate life. But, unfortunately, it comes with risks –and some countries pose more of a threat than others.

While planning your next trip, you may want to consider these new survey results from International SOS.  After polling nearly 600 US-based corporate security professionals, travel managers, human resources executives, medical professionals and others, International SOS found that: (more…)