IT workers are responsible for more than a third
ofdata leakagesfrom companies,
according to a survey by security services providerOrthus.
The company monitored more than 100,000 hours of user activity
at customer sites with more than 1,000 employees in the UK and
Europe in the past year to analyse the ways users accessed,
processed, stored and transmitted corporate-sensitive
information.
The research found that trusted users were the biggest sources
of information leaks such as IT personnel (30%), customer service
staff (22%), third parties (16%), sales staff (12%) and the
operations department (10%).
"Companies need to address the insider as the primary threat to
their business. Until this is done no real security can be
achieved," said Richard Hollis, managing director of Orthus.
The research was done using software agents on endpoints,
servers and terminal servers. The software recorded evidence of
data being removed through unauthorised actions.