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Concern about reuse of personal credentials at work

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 14 Dec 2016
From credential sharing to authentication practices, it's clear that consumer trends are having a big impact on enterprise security, says Gemalto.
From credential sharing to authentication practices, it's clear that consumer trends are having a big impact on enterprise security, says Gemalto.

Identity theft accounts for 64% of all data breaches across the globe, and consumer service breaches continue to rise, resulting in almost nine in ten (89%) enterprises addressing their access management security policies.

This is according to a recent study by Gemalto: Authentication and Identity Management Index, which surveyed 1 150 IT decision-makers in 12 countries globally including SA (50).

The study revealed that 90% of enterprise IT professionals are concerned that employees' reuse of personal credentials for work purposes could compromise security. However, with two thirds (68%) saying they would be comfortable allowing employees to use their social media credentials on company resources, the research suggests that personal applications (such as e-mail) are the biggest worry to organisations.

According to the report, the enterprise and consumer worlds are merging closer together, with enterprise security teams under increasing pressure to implement the same type of authentication methods typically seen in consumer services, such as fingerprint scanning and iris recognition. Six in ten (62%) believed this was the case, with 63% revealing they feel security methods designed for consumers provide sufficient protection for enterprises, says Gemalto. In addition, over half of respondents (52%) believe it will be just three years before these methods merge completely.

"From credential sharing to authentication practices, it's clear that consumer trends are having a big impact on enterprise security," said Francois Lasnier, senior vice president, Identity Protection at Gemalto. But businesses need to make sure their data isn't compromised by bad personal habits. Half of enterprises have implemented extra training (49%) to allay their security concerns, 47% increased security spend, and 44% allocated further resources, says the report.

"It's encouraging to see deployment of two-factor authentication methods on the rise, and increased awareness for cloud access management as these are the most effective solutions for businesses to secure cloud resources and protect against internal and external threats. For IT leaders, it's important that they keep pushing for security to be a priority at the board level, and ensure that it's front of mind for everyone in an organisation."

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