Open-access content
Thursday 23rd April 2009
—
updated 1.53pm, Tuesday 5th May 2020
23 April 2009
A third of employees would sell sensitive company information if the price were right, according to a survey.
Researchers from Infosecurity Europe asked 600 commuters outside a London railway station what would tempt them to hand over their organisation's information to a stranger.
The survey offered incentives ranging from a "slap-up meal" to more than £10 million.
Of the 37 per cent of workers who could be corrupted, 63 per cent would only hand over sensitive data for at least £1 million. However, 10 per cent would do so if their mortgage were paid off and 5 per cent would do it for a holiday.
Taking care of their credit card debt was good enough for 4 per cent and 5 per cent would do it for a new job. A slap up meal is all would take for 2 per cent.
The types of information to which the respondents had access included customer data-bases, business plans, accounting systems, HR information, and IT admin passwords.
Two-thirds of employees thought it would be easy to sneak information out of their organisation and 88 per cent thought that the information to which they had access was valuable.
Just over half of the workers in the survey said they were more worried about losing their jobs than they were this time a year ago.
Employee loyalty has changed too with a third saying they felt a lot less loyalty to their employers than a year ago. But 5 per cent were more loyal as they felt they had job security.
"It's quite staggering that a third of people are open to bribery, although it's encouraging that
63 per cent of workers are honest and wouldn't give anything away not even for a million pounds," said Tamar Beck, group event director, Infosecurity Europe.
"However, you can't count on people's honesty to protect the assets of company, it's down to an organisation to take steps to ensure their most valuable assets are locked down and protected, especially confidential customer data.
A third of employees would sell sensitive company information if the price were right, according to a survey.
Researchers from Infosecurity Europe asked 600 commuters outside a London railway station what would tempt them to hand over their organisation's information to a stranger.
The survey offered incentives ranging from a "slap-up meal" to more than £10 million.
Of the 37 per cent of workers who could be corrupted, 63 per cent would only hand over sensitive data for at least £1 million. However, 10 per cent would do so if their mortgage were paid off and 5 per cent would do it for a holiday.
Taking care of their credit card debt was good enough for 4 per cent and 5 per cent would do it for a new job. A slap up meal is all would take for 2 per cent.
The types of information to which the respondents had access included customer data-bases, business plans, accounting systems, HR information, and IT admin passwords.
Two-thirds of employees thought it would be easy to sneak information out of their organisation and 88 per cent thought that the information to which they had access was valuable.
Just over half of the workers in the survey said they were more worried about losing their jobs than they were this time a year ago.
Employee loyalty has changed too with a third saying they felt a lot less loyalty to their employers than a year ago. But 5 per cent were more loyal as they felt they had job security.
"It's quite staggering that a third of people are open to bribery, although it's encouraging that
63 per cent of workers are honest and wouldn't give anything away not even for a million pounds," said Tamar Beck, group event director, Infosecurity Europe.
"However, you can't count on people's honesty to protect the assets of company, it's down to an organisation to take steps to ensure their most valuable assets are locked down and protected, especially confidential customer data.