Temporary Workers a Security Risk

By Greg McNevin

November 29, 2007: According to a new survey by Websense, UK companies appear to be somewhat blind when it comes to the effect of temporary staff on data security.

Conducted by Open Access, the survey of more than 100 temporary staff found that many of them are unwittingly exposing businesses of all sizes to information security breaches, indicating that many organisations may be unnecessarily putting their data at risk by granting temporary staff access to confidential information at the same levels as permanent employees.

87.7 percent of respondents claimed that they were able to access documents from the company network drive, while 52 percent had used a co-worker's e-mail account.

Additionally, 80.7 percent said they had unlimited access to the Internet from their work PC. While Internet access is becoming more important for all workers, for temps with little knowledge of company policies this opens up a large security hole, especially considering most of these workers also seem to be given direct access to network drives.

Websense says that a “worrying level of apathy amongst businesses toward basic data security processes is leaving them wide open to the risk of accidental or deliberate data breaches”, particularly considering only 21.1 percent of temporary workers claimed to have signed a PC or Web use policy.

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