Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Information exodus: when layoffs mean data leakage

Employees are being let go in droves as companies attempt to weather the continuing economic downturn but an unintended consequence of all the layoffs is a near catastrophic impact on IT security.

According to a study released Tuesday by Telus and the Rotman School of Management, annual breach costs for Canadian businesses have almost doubled in the last year from $423,469 to $839,149 per organization. A key contributor to this growth is the number of employees, dismissed from their jobs, who take valuable data with them.

“As job losses mount, the threat to the environment rises,” says Walid Hejazi, a professor of business economics at the Rotman School and one of the co-authors of the report, Rotman — Telus: Joint Study on Canadian IT Security Practices. The study polled about 50 participants in nine focus groups across Canada, focusing on organizations with 100 or more employees.

Read more...


Share/Save/Bookmark

Recent Posts