Employees have a dangerously relaxed attitude towards security on their laptops, sharing PIN numbers and passwords, the shredding of documents and seem happy sharing personal details over the Internet, according to research carried out by SafeBoot, a leading data encryption specialist.

SafeBoot’s survey found that nearly half of respondents had security on their laptop but had no idea how to use it what it did, or they found it too complicated and hadn’t bothered to learn anymore about it. Nearly a quarter had lost their laptop or had it stolen, with nearly one in four of these having lost it more than once. Over 25 per cent said they didn’t see the point in shredding documents suggesting that the 29 million workers in the UK are walking security hazards and shows why the Home Office has calculated the cost of identity theft to the British economy has been some £1.62bn during the past three years.

“This makes disturbing reading for organisations that let their employees walk out of the office everyday with a company laptop under their arm,” says Tom de Jongh, encryption and security specialist at SafeBoot. “It also raises the question about whether companies are doing enough to encourage their employees to understand the security on their laptops and educate them about the consequences if safety is breached or compromised. Would people be happy to let someone walk into their home and just walk out with their computer? No, so why let this happen at work.  Businesses need to show a little more common sense and protect corporate information. ” 

There was also a worrying level of indifference to credit card identity theft, with 44 per cent saying they didn’t worry about it because it would never happen to them and over a third saying it was because they could get their money back from the bank. 

Respondents are paying scant regard towards personal security with a quarter sharing their PIN with someone, and a third had the same PIN for multiple debit and credit cards as well as mobile phones, even though 71 per cent of those didn’t think it was sensible. Around 60 per cent also shared their personal information including bank account details over the Internet.

“If a laptop is lost, it is the data on it that is most valuable. However this can be protected. By investing in mobile data security solution, for instance, then it doesn’t matter how careless the employee is with his laptop,” added de Jongh.

The survey was conducted by SafeBoot amongst 750 respondents from the UK.

About SafeBoot

The SafeBoot suite of mobile data security solutions protects data, devices and networks against the risks associated with loss, theft, and unauthorized access, anytime and anywhere. SafeBoot is the vendor-of-choice for leading global organizations and provides them with powerful encryption and strong access control technologies that seamlessly integrate with existing enterprise systems. SafeBoot’s centralised management capabilities provide organisations with operational efficiency and ensures the lowest possible total-cost-of-ownership.