10% of employees unaware if they have an IT department or not

A transatlantic survey of 2000 employees has found that only a fifth of UK workers think their data is more secure at work than at than at home, whereas the majority of US workers think it is more secure at work.

Further findings include that an alarming 10% of employees in both countries are blissfully unaware if they have an IT department or not, which immediately indicates a complete lack of internal communication. Are they also unaware who is infiltrating their data?

With new breaches emerging on an almost daily basis, we have all witnessed the detrimental effects organisations undergo when sensitive corporate data is exposed. Therefore, ensuring that data is secure is crucial for any organisation; especially with the increase in bring any device and employees working remotely.

The transatlantic survey was conducted by OnePoll, on behalf of Varonis Systems, the provider of software solutions for unstructured, human-generated enterprise data.

Findings include:

• Over a third of US workers claim that the data they handle is more secure at work (34%) and slightly less said it was more secure at home (29%).
• However, over in the UK, only 21% feel that their data is secure at home and double the amount of workers believe that it is more secure at work (42%).
• US workers that have access to an IT department said they thought data was more secure at work (42%)
• The consensus for the UK is that their data is two times more secure at work (54%) if they have an IT department than if they do not (21%).
• For those who didn’t know whether they had an IT Department, they were more likely to think data was safer at home.

The survey indicates that American employees are far more competent at working from home than the UK:

• US workers find it easier to share files from home (34%) than at work (31%), compared to UK workers who found it much easier to share files whilst at work.
• For the US workers that had an IT department, the results were very similar at work and at home
• The UK had a different outcome, with almost double the amount of workers finding it easier to share files at work (49%), than at home (27%) when an IT department is present.
• With the presence of an IT department both countries were better able to take advantage of mobile devices in sharing data from home.