Corporate managers, more so than rank-and-file workers, put their companies at high risk of data breaches and intellectual property loss, according to technical services firm Stroz Friedberg.
"On the Pulse: Information Security Risk in American Business," a survey of more than 750 information workers in U.S. businesses, reports that 87% of senior managers frequently or occasionally send work materials to personal email or cloud accounts, thereby increasing data breaches, and that 58% of senior managers say they have accidentally sent the wrong person sensitive information, compared to 25% of workers overall.
Risk doesn't decrease when corporate managers leave the company: More than 50% of senior management and 37% of mid-level management admit to bringing job-related emails, files or materials with them after leaving their employers. About 20% of lower ranking employees do so.
"Insiders are by far the biggest risk to the security of a company's sensitive information, whether it's a careless executive or a disgruntled employee," said Michael Patsalos-Fox, Stroz Friedberg's CEO.
Despite self-acknowledging that C-suite leaders are responsible for protecting their own companies against cyber risk, 52% of senior managers say they are failing at reducing cyber-threat risks.
Bring-your-own-device workplaces also open the doors to hackers and viruses; only 35% of employees at BYOD companies say they received training in mobile-device security from their employers.
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