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Business travellers are more likely to be mugged of valuable private and corporate data than of their travel money, and yet their indiscriminate behaviour while online, particularly among senior executives, is playing into the hands of cyber criminals, said a report.
According to a latest report by security solutions firm Kaspersky Lab, one in five people have been a target of cyber crime while abroad, rising to almost a third (31 per cent) of senior business managers. At the same time, half the people travelling for work (54 per cent), and up to 62 per cent of senior executives, make no distinction between their behaviours when abroad. This, despite the fact they are a long way from the security of their work communications networks, and are handling employers’ confidential data at work.
The study from Kaspersky Lab polled 11,850 people from across Europe, Russia, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the US. It found the pressure from work to get online clouding the judgement of business travellers when connecting to the Internet.
“This report shows us that cyber crime is a real hazard while travelling, and employees are putting confidential business information at risk. The insight provided by the report should be a red flag for corporate information security specialists.
Also Read: Corporate Data Theft, Malware Attacks Among Biggest Threats To Digital Businesses
Business travel behaviour we have unearthed here presents a significant corporate data protection challenge. It’s now up to businesses to respond with appropriate security solutions, if they wish to protect themselves,” said Konstantin Voronkov, head of endpoint product management at Kaspersky Lab.
Also Read: Corporate Data Theft, Malware Attacks Among Biggest Threats To Digital Businesses
Business travel behaviour we have unearthed here presents a significant corporate data protection challenge. It’s now up to businesses to respond with appropriate security solutions, if they wish to protect themselves,” said Konstantin Voronkov, head of endpoint product management at Kaspersky Lab.
The report further said, three in five (59 per cent) people in senior roles say they try to log in as quickly as possible upon arrival abroad because there is an expectation at work that they will stay connected. By the time business travellers reach the arrivals terminal, one in six is using his/her work device to get online.
Almost half (48 per cent) the senior managers and more than two in five (43 per cent) mid-level managers use unsecure public access WiFi networks to connect their work devices when abroad. At least two in five (44 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively) use WiFi to transmit work e-mails with sensitive or confidential attachments.
One reason business travellers are doing so, the report finds, is a widely-held assumption their work devices are inherently more secure than private communication tools, regardless of their connectivity. Two in five (41 per cent) expect their employers to have set strong security measures. This is most pronounced among business leaders (53 per cent) and mid-level executives (46 per cent).
Twice as many (47 per cent) think that, if employers are to send staff overseas, they must accept the security risks that go with it. But a large proportion of business travellers, and particularly business leaders, are not helping with their indiscriminate behaviour when abroad, said the report.
One in five (20 per cent) senior executives admits to using work devices to access websites of a sensitive nature via WiFi, compared to an average 12 per cent. One in four (27 per cent) has done the same for online banking, compared to an average 16 per cent.
