A recent study from Cisco exposed how younger employees view security in the workplace, and how they try to get around the controls put in place. One statistic that really jumped off the page for me was the fact that more than 60% of young employees don’t believe it is their responsibility to protect information or devices. Instead, they believe it’s the responsibility of IT or someone else.

This shows very clearly that employees, especially younger ones, are still not getting the message about security, privacy, and their responsibility. These unnerving results might explain why we still have so many data breaches – an average of one every other day over the last five years. And in the first six months of this year, more than half of the data breaches involved the exposure of Social Security numbers.

We know from research that many – if not most – data breaches can be traced to mistakes by employees. Thanks to this report, maybe now we know why.

The three-part Cisco Connected World Technology Report aimed to expose the attitudes of students and young employees to internal security policies meant to protect them, their employers, and their customers. As the report found “many young professionals take extreme measures to access the Internet, even if it compromises their company or their own security. Such behavior includes secretly using neighbors’ wireless connections, sitting in front of businesses to access free Wi-Fi networks, and borrowing other people’s devices without supervision.”

Other findings of the report included:

• About one in four college students (24%) and employees (23%) experiences identity theft before the age of 30. When applied to a broader pool of people, two out of five college students said they know of friends or family members who have experienced identity theft.
• One in three (33%) college students globally does not mind sharing personal information online, believes privacy boundaries are loosening, or does not think about privacy.
• Almost one in four college students (23%) has asked a neighbor for access to a computer or the Internet, and almost one in five (19%) admitted accessing a neighbor’s wireless connection without permission. About one in five college students globally (19%) admitted standing outside retail outlets to use free wireless connections. About one in 10 (9%) has asked to use a stranger’s mobile phone. Overall, two of three employees worldwide (64%) said they had done at least one of these actions.

RELATED STORY: The 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report (PDF)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns1120/2011-CCWTR-Chapter-3-All-Finding.pdf

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