A total of 65% of people working in the construction industry would not report a serious data protection breach if they thought it would get one of their colleagues into trouble, according to recent research by telecoms and IT firm Daisy Group.
The study, which looked at data security risks, found that one in five (21%) construction workers had disabled the password protection features on work laptops, mobiles, or tablet devices because they found them annoying. That compared to just 13% in the national sample.
It was also discovered that nearly half (47%) of those who did have password protection said they didn’t change their passwords regularly, and one in eight (12%) admitted their password was very simple and would be easy to guess. In the overall sample, 36% said they didn’t change passwords regularly.
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If asked by a third party to email a client or supplier’s personal details outside of the company – thereby breaching the data protection act – 11% said that they would send the details without querying the request, as they didn’t think anyone would mind. That compared with 7% overall.
When asked if data security was an important issue for the company they worked for, one in four (27%) construction workers said they had no idea.
The survey questioned a group of 2,000, including 131 in the construction sector.
Graham Harris, a cloud specialist at business IT and telecoms provider Daisy Group, explained: “When it comes to data security, all too often businesses focus purely on IT processes and forget about the staff that will be using them.
“As our research identified, human error is one of, if not the most likely source for data security issues, and fear of reprisal is a powerful force. Businesses must be proactive and educate their staff about what data security processes and policies there are, why they exist, what the staff member’s responsibilities are and reassure them about what to do in the event of a problem.”
The research was conducted to assess the demand among UK businesses for “mobile device management”, technology that allows organisations to track and wipe the content of any lost or stolen devices – including smartphones and tablets.
Graham Harris explained: “It is important to ‘common sense’ test any security system. Procedures that are complicated or disrupt the working environment often result in employees finding ways to circumnavigate them or taking matters in their own hands. Similarly, it is important to plan for human error and problems, such as theft or loss of devices that carry important data, so that when they do occur, they can be dealt with quickly and effectively.”
The EU is currently in the process of reforming laws on data protection which, among other things, will require organisations to report data protection breaches to the relevant authorities within 24 hours.
It is anticipated that the penalties for failure to comply will increase to as much as €100m. The legislation changes are expected to be in force by the end of 2018.
