Respondents were given five choices to choose from: On a global basis, 29 “Is that because they feel “What people who are sophisticated in the security space know is that it’s
A new Cisco sponsored global study of 1,000 remote
workers indicates that IT workers may well be engaged in more insecure
activities than they are willing to admit.
Users are apparently aware of insecure activities, such as opening e-mail
attachments from unknown senders; yet they still open the attachments and
e-mails. The study, which was conducted by research firm InsightExpress,
reveals a number of such security contradictions.
For the most part, users are aware of IT security concerns, but not
pervasively so. Sixty-six percent of global users indicated that they were aware of security concerns when working remotely.
“At least one-third were not even aware that they are exposed to or could
experience security breaches or compromises,” Bruce Murphy, Cisco’s vice president of Advanced Services, told internetnews.com.
Only 25 percent of global respondents admitted to using their work computers
to open an unknown e-mail. However when the question about what they do with unknown e-mails was asked a different way, the results were somewhat different.
When presented with options as to what they would actually do with the e-mail
from an unknown sender, 44 percent of respondents admitted that they would
open the e-mail.
A similar sort of contradiction appeared in response to questions about
personal versus work use for respondents work computers.
percent of respondents reported using their work computers for personal
purposes. Yet 40 percent admitted to using their work computers to buy
personal items and 46 percent admitted downloading personal files to their
work computers.
“We see inconsistencies between what people say they do and what they
propose they might do in certain cases,” said Erica DesRoches, program manager for InsightExpress.
Twenty-one percent of global respondents admitted to allowing others to use their work computers and 11 percent admitted to using their neighbor’s wireless
connection.
According to DesRoches, the inconsistency of responses is one of the most
surprising aspects of the survey and one that likely requires further
examination to better understand.
“People understand that they should be concerned about security but they
don’t behave in secure ways,” DesRoches said.
overly confident that their IT department has them covered in all scenarios,
or is it because they are simply willing to take risks?”
From Cisco’s point of view the survey and its findings aren’t about driving
any Cisco product. In fact, Cisco’s Murphy argued the study was vendor-agnostic and is really an attempt at a different type of security survey.
“There have been lots of surveys; most of them are very numbers driven. What’s different here is that it gets into people’s behaviors,” Murphy said.
not just one specific area or issue. It’s primarily driven by people’s
behaviors.
How Insecure Do You Think You Are?
