Private email and personal devices continue to threaten IT security

According to a survey by Sourcefire - an open source network intrusion detection system - 96% of senior managers and directors use personal devices for work – a staggering amount that questions how much staff, on all levels, really know about IT security in the work place. 69% of employees fall into the same camp.

Practically 100% of staff had personal email accounts and a quarter of these had used them for work in the past year.

83% of employees understood that such actions could potentially cause a problem for their company’s IT security but one third admitted they would carry on regardless, even if told otherwise.

With the expansion of Internet and mobile computing, companies are up against an increasingly complex issue when it comes to IT security platforms. The UK Government came under fire for not doing enough. The Cloud, maybe inevitably, is expected to bring with it security issues and 80% of those quizzed believe that the cyber criminals will launch further attacks on the big companies such as Microsoft.

It became apparent in the research that corporations actually did not even expect their IT department to be able to provide complete protection from cyber attacks. The threats change each day as the attackers renew their ‘weapons’ to combat new lines of defence. However, it’s never time to give up the fight or let colleagues stick their heads in the sand when it comes to personal Internet use at work.