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Survey reveals worst offenders for SME internet security

Published On 29 March 2007 at 13:39:09

Junior sales men and women pose the greatest internal threat to the IT security of the UK's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a new report suggests.

MessageLabs, a leading provider of web security services to businesses worldwide, found that the way junior sales people aged between 26 and 35 used their company's computers meant that they were the most likely to unknowingly facilitate a IT security breach.

This group, which MessageLab characterises as being "multi-taskers and tech savvy", uses a variety of online applications, such as email, instant messaging and VoIP. However, they often fail to consider the potential dangers of these services.

"A business's best assets and worst threats can be one and the same as the worst offenders are likely to be the best revenue generators," said Mark Sunner, the chief security analyst at MessageLabs.

"With almost half of all businesses not providing adequate IT security training and the threat landscape constantly evolving, the battle to protect one's business from online risks is an arduous one."

MessageLab's survey revealed that SME owners are pessimistic about how effective their IT security measures are ever going to be.

More than 75 per cent of the businesses believed that they would never completely stop spam and only 21 per cent said they were confident their employees would not cause a security breach.

 

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