The vast majority of dismissed IT staff would steal company secrets, if they could, according to a survey by identity management firm Cyber-Ark.
The firm’s annual ‘Trust, Security & Passwords’ survey among 300 IT security professionals reveals that 88% of IT administrators, if laid off tomorrow, would steal valuable and sensitive company information.
Target information would include the CEO’s passwords, the customer database, R&D plans, financial reports, M&A plans and the company’s list of privileged passwords. Only 12% said they would leave empty handed.
Udi Mokady, Cyber-Ark co-founder and CEO, warns that if the looming recession means redundancies at your workplace, exercise extreme caution.
He points out that the privileged password list provides the keys to unlocking every piece of information on the network – and, of the 88% that said they would take information, one third specifically cited that as their preferred steal.
“Most company directors are blissfully unaware of the administrative or privileged passwords to which their IT guys have access,” says Mokady.
“These privileged identities, which lie on hundreds of servers and applications, very rarely get changed, as it’s often considered too much hassle. So when [IT staff] leave the organisation, they can often still access the network to acquire an organisations’ most sensitive information.
“Our advice is to secure the most privileged data, and routinely change and manage privileged passwords, so that if an employee’s contract is terminated, they can’t play havoc inside the network or steal data for competitive or financial gain.”
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