Confidential data at risk even with policies in place

Think confidential information is protected by company IT security policies? Think again.

A new survey by Xerox and McAfee, reveals that more than half of employees say they don’t always follow their company’s IT security policies or aren’t even aware of the policies – leaving the security of customer credit card numbers, financial reports, and HR and tax documents at risk.

According to the survey, 39 percent of employees who copy, scan or print confidential information at work worry at least sometimes whether the information on a networked device will remain secure.

To address this concern, Xerox and McAfee are teaming up to design a security system to help companies protect against threats to this confidential data. By integrating embedded McAfee software into Xerox technology, the two companies plan to use a whitelisting method that allows only approved files to run, offering more protection than traditional black listing tactics, where a user has to be aware of and proactively block malicious software. Additionally, the solution provides an audit trail to track and investigate the time and origin of security events, and take action on them.

Xerox and McAfee are improving the safety of devices on the network to protect proprietary company data – a needed solution according to survey data, which also found that some companies don’t take simple steps to lessen the risk, such as making sure employees are aware of IT policies and use access codes to pick up prints and copies. Additional survey results found:

• Half (51 percent) of those employees whose workplace has a printer, copier or MFP say they’ve copied, scanned or printed confidential information at work.
• Of the 39 percent who say they are at least sometimes worried about confidential information staying secure, 86 percent say they are at least somewhat worried about personal information, 77 percent say customer data, 77 percent say employee information and 70 percent say proprietary company information.
• More than half (54 percent) say computers pose the biggest security threat to their company’s network compared to other IT devices, while only 6 percent say it is MFPs.
• Only 13 percent of employees whose workplace has a printer, copier or MFP say they are prompted to enter a password or passcode on the MFP before releasing a job they’ve printed or accessing the ability to copy.

“The threat landscape has evolved to include devices that when originally designed, where never considered a security threat,” said Tom Moore, vice president of embedded sales, McAfee. “Now we are seeing the need for security on devices like MFPs to protect confidential and proprietary data, which if lost or stolen, could negatively impact a company and its employees. The partnership with McAfee and Xerox embeds security into the device for better protection.”