With our personal information regularly at risk from theft and interrogation, it is little wonder we take measures to try and prevent others from getting their hands on it. This is especially true when it comes to protecting our bank accounts and the hard earned money they hold. By regularly changing our online banking passwords, activating two factor authentication or making sure we shield our pin number when it is entered, we feel as though we are doing enough to protect ourselves. Even with these measures in place however, thousands of people fall victim to theft.
This is also a common occurrence within the working world, with many organisations finding their confidential information leaked or databases hacked.
Our own research alongside PwC, has found that there is a disconnect between employees access to information, and their responsibility for its security. Unlike in our personal lives, many employees aren't held accountable if the business information they've put at risk is mismanaged for example, marketers have the ability to use our information to target us with adverts and emails in the right way, but they are passing the responsibility of keeping it secure to the IT teams instead of taking care of it themselves.
Think about your behaviour at work. It is probable that you and your colleagues often have documents lying around on desks, in unlocked drawers or even left on a photocopier, exactly where they shouldn't be, but this is often confidential information. Imagine it is your personal information on these documents; think about how regularly this happens and the very real risk your information would be under.
With information as important to a business as your personal details are to you, it is important that organisations make sure that all employees with access to sensitive data understand their accountability and know how to protect the information they touch. This not only benefits the company, but benefits individuals like you and I that have expectations for the safety of their personal details. With a lot resting on the protection of this sensitive information, think twice about how you're keeping it secure.