by Nick Fishman

I guess none of us should be surprised by the results of a recent study conducted by US Information Security Company Cyber-Ark which suggests that one out of every three IT professionals admitted to snooping.  47% admitted to accessing company information that wasn’t relevant to them.

Here are some other hair-raising findings from the study:

Cyber-Ark said privileged passwords get changed far less frequently than user passwords, with 30 percent being changed every quarter and 9 percent never changed at all, meaning that IT staff who have left an organization could still gain access.

It added that seven out of 10 companies rely on outdated and insecure methods to exchange sensitive data, with 35 percent choosing email and 35 percent using couriers, while 4 percent still relied on the postal system.

employeescreenIQ has long recognized that IT professionals have nearly unfettered access to an organizations infrastructure and that those that wish to abuse such access could do significant harm.

Here’s my best background screening tip for IT people:  SCREEN THEM!

Okay, I’ve got some better recommendations for background screening services to be considered:  Social Security Number Trace, County Criminal Record Search in each County the Applicant has lived, worked or attended school and in each name revealed in the SSN Trace, National Criminal Database Search (only in conjunction with a county search), Federal District Criminal Record Search, Employment Verifications, Education Verifications, Credit Check and a Substance Abuse Test.

Seem like a pretty extensive search?  It is, but if performing these searches help you protect yourself, your employees and your business, it’s well worth it.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 8:17 am and is filed under Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.