Finance And HR Employees: The Biggest Cybersecurity Threat To Business?

Finance and human resources employees represent the biggest cybersecurity threat to business today, according to Clearswift, a cybersecurity firm. The research polled over 500 data security specialists in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia and 4000 employees.

Interestingly, nearly half (48%) of respondents claimed finance departments and their employees posed the biggest cybersecurity threat to a company, versus 42% for human resources and their employees.

Of that tally, 33 percent of respondents believed middle management posed the biggest security threat (compared to 19 percent for senior management and 16 percent for execs/admins).

– 48 percent of respondents claimed finance departments and their employees posed the threat.

– 42 percent of respondents claimed human resources and their employees posed the threat.

– 37 percent of respondents believed Middle management posed the biggest security threat.

– 19 percent of respondents believed senior management posed the biggest security threat.

– 16 percent of respondents believed other execs/admins posed the biggest security threat.

5 ways to cause an accidental security breach:

1. Sending sensitive information such as salaries to the wrong person.

2. Adapting documents prepared for other customers or staff and send out, not realising the receiver can view document history.

3. Opening documents containing hidden malware.

4. Introducing malware from your phone or USB drive.

5. Using insecure personal email or file sharing to store or share sensitive information.