Loose lips sink..companies?...

When talking about security in a company, one cannot just assume it's all hardware and software based protections. It's about the people too. People are actually the weaker link when it comes to a companies security. Many security analyst firms prey on the weak links, and while your network may be locked up tight, someone with loose lips can easily make all of your efforts null and void.

Corporate espionage comes to mind. While at dinner, talking shop with your coworkers, you might be talking about sensitive information and not even consider the fact that you could be overheard or even consider that the information is fairly sensitive and with the right interpretation could cost your company big bucks. Also, you may be approached by a stranger striking up a conversation in a bar, mention your company, and before you know it you could be a target of bribery or extortion to get more information.

This article from darkreading.com reports on a study done by the firm FileTrek. The study was of 2625 Americans over the age of 18. By way of extrapolation the study suggests that over 90% of Americans suspect such actions are happening, whether intentionally malicious not.

Being a busy regional manager of a big-city branch of a company, you might think to just take some paperwork home, so that you can do a little catching up after you have dinner with the wife and kids. Well suppose you forget your briefcase at the dry-cleaner? Or you are robbed? Suppose that information you had could be used as insider trading and/or a way to take your company down. It all sounds very superstitious in nature, but it happens more often than you would think.

The article states that there is a difference in opinion among different generations when it comes to whether or not it is acceptable to take documents off the company premises. Only the majority of people 55 and older believed it was grounds for termination. Well the fact of the matter is, it is a completely termination warranting offense. Actually the article shows some statistics that the only other two crimes in the office-place that rank higher for grounds of termination are Sexual Harassment and Incompetence.

The great wall syndrome is very common in today's bustling market-place. The great wall syndrome is as easy copying sensitive company data to a USB Flash drive, and taking it home. Perhaps you lose the data, and now you are the cataclysm for your own early termination.   It's fairly straightforward to protect networks and design software correctly, but it is nearly impossible to control people and their actions.   Loose lips sink ships, and as far as a companies' security goes, one bad-egg spoils it all and completely undermines and bypasses any safe-guards that are currently in place.  I think it's an important task to get companies to start teaching their employees proper information etiquette and how sensitive data really is. Even the most benign piece of information can be interpreted in a way, in the right hands, to allow for further data compromise or corporate peril like bankruptcy, buy-out, and shutdown.