Every so often, an article or study comes out that strives to make IT look bad, either ineffective or a misguided use of corporate dollars. And every so often, an article or study comes out that shows some IT people making their own selves look bad. A new survey falls into this latter category.
One-third of IT workers admitted to snooping on confidential files in their company’s networks, including salary details, personal e-mails and meeting minutes, according to a survey released June 19.
Nearly half said they’d accessed information which had nothing to do with their jobs. Cyber-Ark, the information security company that sponsored the study, argued that these transgressions were made possible because companies have sloppy policies and insecure methods around administrative passwords, but of course, the company’s business is in these areas.
Yet the bigger issue seems to be the way a large chunk of the 300 senior IT pros who took part in the study are making all of the trustworthy, professionally responsible IT people look bad.
Matthew, a poster at Geek.com, says these people are bad seeds, but that their managers are often not clued in enough to stop them.
“Unfortunately, some IT workers will take advantage of ‘the power’ they have to look at things they shouldn’t be and abusing their position,” writes Matthew. “These people should be reprimanded by management, but in a lot of cases management have no idea what is happening because again, they don’t understand the system well enough or have mechanisms in place to ensure confidential data is kept that way.”