One startling fact has emerged in a recent survey that one in three Chief Information Officers (CIOs) believe that their employees are their greatest security risk ringing alarm bells in the organisations. The survey has been commissioned by Robert Half,interestingly, a recruitment agency.
The risk has become a growing concern for companies as the management allows the staff to use their own laptops, tablets and smartphones at work.
While traditionally, the response to IT security has been to find the optimum way to protect a business’ assets from external security attacks, a growing risk now faces organisations in the form of potential internal security threats. This threat is made evident by the fact that almost three in four (74%) CIOs allow their employees to access corporate data on their personal devices.
According to the report — Cyber-security: Defending your future — 36 per cent of CIOs say a lack of employee knowledge and skills around data security is the most significant security risk their organisation will face in the next five years.
“Although it may not be intentional, simple human error can expose companies to increased cyber-attacks and situations where sensitive company data can be compromised. The impact of a data security breach on a company’s reputation can be devastating and it can take years to win back customer confidence,” said Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard, managing director of Robert Half Singapore.
To combat the ongoing threat, nearly all (97 per cent) of CIOs are taking action to protect their company from potential data breaches.
The most common response (58 per cent) is to train personnel on cyber-security policies and corporate practices when using their personal devices. Signing an acceptable use policy also seems to be standard practice for more than half (57 per cent) of the Singaporean companies. Technical applications are being implemented as 53 per cent say they are deploying mobile device management technology and 52 per cent are using authentication software.
The annual study is developed by Robert Half and conducted in April 2016 by an independent research company, surveying 100 CIOs/CTOs in Singapore. This survey is part of the international workplace survey, a questionnaire about job trends, talent management and trends in the workplace.