A large number of security conscious workers have been fooled into thinking that a good on-line IT security policy is enough to ensure their confidential work is kept private. In a recent study, it has been revealed that more than 70% of the surveyed employees admitted to reading private documents by looking over the shoulders of their fellow employees. Alongside this, over half of the 2000 workers studied stated that they were aware of the possibility of people reading private documents over their shoulder, but did nothing to prevent this. In the office this is usually not seen as a major problem, but the increasing mobile workforce means the same individuals do not take precautions when working in public places such as coffee houses and airports. The study came from ComRes and highlights the fact that companies spend millions of pounds each year to keep information secure on the PC or laptop, only to have it stolen by shoulder surfers reading over their employees shoulders as they work.
