Most firms unaware of employee access
By Chris Taylor
13/04/2011
Most IT professionals are unaware of the location or amount of access they have given for their most sensitive files, a survey finds.
The findings, cited by Security Park, claimed that over half of the respondents didn't know who had company access to sensitive personal or business data (65 per cent).
Furthermore just 39 per cent of 150 IT professionals said that they could locate these files and 18 per cent said they knew the exact number they had.
The research, conducted by a data security firm, comes as a surprise, as the majority of respondents (82 per cent) said they would reconsider their security policies in light of recent high-profile hacks against businesses.
It is possible to restrict, protect and manage file access through utilising IT management software effectively. This can be set up by specialists who are familiar with company infrastructures and appropriate access levels for staff.
Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at the company behind the research, spoke to the Chartered Institute for IT about setting up a secure IT system.
"The first step to a solid data security plan is taking inventory of your sensitive files and knowing where they are and who has access to them at all times," he explained.
"Only with this complete picture will you be able to guard against insider threat by detecting when sensitive data is being added or removed, or when an employee is improperly accessing files."
Mr Shulman further stressed the importance of user restrictions as he revealed nearly one in three polled said that their company had 'lost' data due to employees abusing access rights.
