The biggest threat to IT? Your own staff

The notion that staff are now broadly techno-literate has been rubbished by a report from Kaspersky Lab, which finds 60 per cent of IT professionals admitting they lack the resources to protect against cyber-attacks welcomed by unsuspecting workers.


Increased investment does not solve the problem when the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, with the report recommending that all staff are equipped to deal with potential threats.  The problem is that many staff believe that security is the responsibility of the IT department, and lack the fundamentals of handling information safely.

There are methods for safeguarding against the weakest areas of IT security, with practices such as staff required to place ID cards in readers before systems allow access becoming more popular.  Another suggestion is service desks demanding that user passwords contain both upper and lower case letters, along with numbers.

With so much at stake for organisations - from fines for breaching data protection regulations to corporate espionage - investing a little time every year making sure all employees, from the cleaners to senior management, are reminded and trained in the basics of cyber-security could prove an extremely valuable insurance policy.