Firms fear disgruntled staff: report

Employees the biggest threat to security and finance

Who do Irish organisations consider the biggest threat to their finances? Possibly you, according to a new survey from Citrix.

The study from the software giant found that 49 per cent of IT specialists said people, or more precisely disgruntled staff, are a major financial threat to Irish businesses. The survey found that firms fear that annoyed staff would try to breach security and put firms' finances at risk.

These results came from a survey of over 70 Irish IT specialists who attended Citrix's annual Solutions Seminar held in Dublin earlier this month. IT experts from the financial services, retail, government, healthcare, and education sectors participated in the research.

Other security worries found to cause concern included hackers and malware, which were cited by 51 per cent of respondents; phishing attacks, which 52 per cent of participants considered a threat; and distributed denial of service or denial of service attacks were considered major threats by 57 per cent of respondents.

Meanwhile, the study also found that Irish workers are becoming more mobile with nearly 50 per cent of those surveyed reporting that their company's workforce spend a portion of their time as mobile users. Half of those surveyed said they felt firms were not doing enough to shore up security on mobile connections with networks being left open to risk when staff connect from unsecured access points.

"Organisations must ensure that their corporate data is centrally managed and delivered to users just as needed. This is the most effective way to help prevent security threats such as those revealed in the survey. By implementing technology such as virtualisation from the desktop to the data centre, organisations can isolate different environments with varying levels of access and security, and can securely manage and deliver applications to the end user," said Chris Mayers, security architect for Citrix.

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