When in Spain

The Register reports that workers across Europe are continuing to place their own companies at risk from information security attacks. This 'threat from within' is undermining the investments organisations make to defend against security threats, according to a study by security firm McAfee.

The survey, conducted by ICM Research, produced evidence of both ignorance and negligence over the use of company IT resources. One in five workers (21 per cent) let family and friends use company laptops and PCs to access the internet, dramatically increasing the chances of infection of the device and potentially the corporate network.

More than half (51 per cent) connect their own devices or gadgets to their work PC and a quarter of these do so every day. Around 60 per cent admit to storing personal content on their work PC. One in ten confessed to downloading content at work they shouldn’t. Spanish workers were the worst offenders at this with just under one in five (18 per cent) admitting to downloading inappropriate content, behaviour that leaves firms at heightened risk to both security attacks and legal sanctions.