We are constantly bombarded with the threat of strangers stealing our identity and yet do we ever consider what personal information is available to our co-workers?

I just read where Cyber-Ark Software conducted a survey which revealed that one in three  IT employees admitted to peeking at the personal information of other employees including human resources information, wage data, and personal emails.

To make matters worse, they also indicated that lax network security meant they felt confident they would still be able to access the company’s network even if they left their current job. In fact, more than a quarter said they knew of other IT staffers who still had access to networks even though they’d left the company long ago.

I am not so naïve that I believe no one would ever snoop, but I guess I did think my employer would be responsible enough to protect me from abuse. Big mistake, because I just heard another news story where a substitute teacher in South Florida stole the identity of a fellow teacher to open a credit card account and charge up $400 in merchandise.

What it all comes down to is making sure that human resources and IT work closely to establish not just a written policy, but a system of checks and balances to ensure that departing employees don’t leave with more than what they came in with. In addition, as an individual it is your responsibility to protect your personal information from the snooping eyes of others.

In the case of the substitute teacher, it appeared to be that the victim’s information was taken right off her desk.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 11:30 am and is filed under Records, Policies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.