Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Fraud & Identity Theft

Young Workers Ignore IT Policy and Connect at Any Cost, Says Cisco

Beg, Borrow or Steal? Young Professionals, Students Admit They’ll Go To Extreme Measures to Get Online Despite IT Policies

Beg, Borrow or Steal? Young Professionals, Students Admit They’ll Go To Extreme Measures to Get Online Despite IT Policies

According to a report from Cisco, 70-percent of the younger office crowd routinely ignore IT policies, and before the age of 30, 25-percent of them will become victims of identity theft. Although it may not be clear, these two figures are related, as the generation that doesn’t know a world without the Internet is adding risk to their respective organizations simply by being themselves.

The aforementioned stats come from the Cisco Connected World Technology Report— an international study that examines the next generation of workers’ demands and behavior involving network access, mobile device freedom, social media, and work lifestyles.

According to Cisco, it’s the desire for on-demand access to information that is the root of the introduced risk. This desire is so ingrained in the younger generation of employees that many of them take extreme measures to access the Internet, even if it compromises their company or their own security.

Point in case, at least one out of every three employees surveyed, responded negatively when asked if they respect their IT departments. Yet, balancing IT policy compliance with young employees’ desires for more flexible access to social media, devices, and remote access, severely tests the limits of traditional corporate culture.

When asked for the reasons for ignoring IT policy or breaking it outright, the results were interesting to say the lease.

The most common was the belief that employees were not doing anything wrong (33%).

One in five (22%) cited the need to access unauthorized programs and applications to get their job done, while 19% admitted the policies are not enforced.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Some (18%) said they do not have time to think about policies when they are working, and others either said adhering to the policies is not convenient (16%), they forget to do so (15%), or their bosses aren’t watching them (14%).

Two out of three (67%) respondents said IT policies need to be modified to address real-life demands for more work flexibility.

“These findings indicate a real need for a thoughtful and strategic approach for the types of IT services offered while taking into consideration the established processes and culture of any organization to create stronger, trusted relationships between employees and IT departments,” said Rebecca Jacoby, CIO at Cisco. 

Considering the influx of new blood into organizations across the globe, it’s no surprise to see reports like the one from Cisco. IT has always struggled to meet business requirements while bending a little to allow employees some freedom on the network. The issue lies in deciding where to meet in the middle, and there isn’t a solution on the market that can make that happen. All the monitoring, access control, and filtering devices in the world can never match an open mind and strong communication ethic between an organizations base staff and senior executives from all departments. Everyone needs a voice at the table. Unfortunately, this solution is far easier to write than it is to apply, which is why organizations would rather spend money.

Cisco’s report is an interesting read and is available online here.

Written By

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Identity & Access

Zero trust is not a replacement for identity and access management (IAM), but is the extension of IAM principles from people to everyone and...

Malware & Threats

The NSA and FBI warn that a Chinese state-sponsored APT called BlackTech is hacking into network edge devices and using firmware implants to silently...

Cybersecurity Funding

Network security provider Corsa Security last week announced that it has raised $10 million from Roadmap Capital. To date, the company has raised $50...

Network Security

Attack surface management is nothing short of a complete methodology for providing effective cybersecurity. It doesn’t seek to protect everything, but concentrates on areas...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Identity & Access

Hackers rarely hack in anymore. They log in using stolen, weak, default, or otherwise compromised credentials. That’s why it’s so critical to break the...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Mobile & Wireless

Infonetics Research has shared excerpts from its Mobile Device Security Client Software market size and forecasts report, which tracks enterprise and consumer security client...