88% of IT admins would steal data if fired

So the survey says

By Austin Modine • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Director, 5th September 2008 00:23 GMT

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An IT administrator scorned is not to be trusted, according to a study recently conducted by Cyber-Ark.

The security firm claims a survey conducted on 300 security professionals found a whopping 88 per cent of IT admins would steal valuable and sensitive company information if they were fired tomorrow. Only 12 per cent said they'd leave empty handed — or at least were smart enough not to openly admit they'd plunder sensitive data on a questionnaire.

"Our advice is to secure these privileged passwords and identities, and routinely change and manage them so that if an employee's contract is terminated, whether voluntary or not, they can't maliciously wreak havoc inside the network or vindictively steal data for competitive or financial gain," said Cyber-Ark CEO Udi Mokady.

We should note Cyber-Ark sells products that manage, log, and update privileged passwords, so swallow that incredibly high percentage with a grain of salt - or twenty. A vested-interest doesn't necessarily mean the findings are bunk, however.

Based on the average amount of barely-bottled rage we field from data center denizens, we dare say they caught the troops in a moment of vulnerable honesty. Bless them.

In other tid-bits, a quarter of the companies polled admitted to suffering from internal sabotage and security fraud in their workplace. One third said they believe industrial espionage and data leakage is occurring within their company.

But even paying the big bucks for security systems doesn't mean a thing when admins get sloppy. One third of IT admins surveyed admit to having written down privileged passwords on a post-it note. ®

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