One in 10 IT pros have access to accounts from previous jobs

According to a survey that examines how IT professionals and employees view the use of policies and technologies to manage and protect users’ electronic identities, the sharing of work log-ins and passwords between co-workers is a regular occurrence.

The results of the survey – conducted by Quest Software and Harris Interactive – underscore how these technologies, or lack thereof, are making it more difficult for employees to get their jobs done, and how they are causing greater concern about insider threats to IT security.

Key research findings, based on two surveys of more than 1,000 employees and 500 IT decision-makers in the U.S., include:

• 51 percent of IT professionals report they are concerned about insider threats to network security in their company’s current infrastructure.
• One in 10 IT professionals admit they have accounts from previous jobs, from which they can still access systems even though they’ve left the organization.
• 52 percent of employees admit that they’ve shared their work log-ins and passwords with other co-workers, and vice versa.
• One in four IT professionals spend more than 30 minutes per day logging into different websites and databases they need for work.
• 65 percent of workers contact the help desk or IT department at least once per month when they can’t access a system needed for work.
• 94 percent of IT professionals say it is important to be able to manage access, user identities and passwords quickly and efficiently.
• 90 percent of IT professionals agree that companies need to do more to manage and protect users’ electronic identities. 88 percent say identity and access management is an important mechanism to increase security in companies.
• More than a third (34 percent) of IT professionals say their companies don’t realize the value of identity and access management technology as an integral part of their arsenal of security tools.