Laptop dirty dancing risks infection
Survey lifts lid on the promiscuous life of the laptop.
By John E. Dunn, Techworld
Company laptops are routinely used to download music and video,
access porn and do a spot of online shopping, a new Europe-wide
survey has revealed.
So big has the problem become that laptops returning to company
networks after their travels are now one of the biggest security
hazards faced by many companies. Despite this, 70 percent of
companies questioned offered no written guidance to employees on the
use of their machines, and only a quarter imposed technological
restrictions.
The survey of employees in 500 companies across UK, The Netherlands,
Germany, France, and Italy on behalf of Websense, uncovered the
tendency of many employees to treat laptops as unofficial personal
possessions. The crimes of the mobile workforce are various but
include picking up spyware, downloading non-approved software,
surfing porn sites and generally treating the issue of security as a
minor concern.
An astonishing 46 percent allowed people outside of work to use their
machines. And board level employees were no better than workers at
other levels of the organisation, with 54 percent admitting any one
of a number of hazardous activities such as downloading non-approved
software. The UK scored at, or near, the top on most measures of
risky behaviour.
"I don’t know if it’s a lack of awareness or that they [companies]
are focused on security from within the network," said Mark Murtagh
of Websense. "They are looking at the traditional threat of viruses
but not doing a good job of protecting against the evolving threats."
Part of the problem was widespread ignorance of the risks of laptop
use - the survey revealed that only seven percent of those asked
understood what spyware was - coupled with a need to use more
technology to lock down security, he said.
Companies loaded anti-virus software but did not yet see the other
types of threat, such as data theft, as critical enough to warrant
further investment.
Solutions to the problem are harder to gauge. As an absolute minimum,
companies should start asking employees to sign up to reasonable use
guidelines, while IT staff should treat any laptop connecting to the
company network after returning from its travels as a major security
risk. Longer term, it seems likely that software to lock down and
secure laptops is now likely to become a standard feature.
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