Corporate PC users are the weakest link

Corporate computer users have a cavalier attitude to IT security in the workplace, a new report claims.

The warning comes from security firm Trend Micro in a new study into corporate end-user experiences and perceptions of security threats. 

The study tracked responses from 1,200 corporate users across the US, the UK, Germany and Japan and compared them to analysis from Trend Micro's global threat research network and a similar study in 2005.

US respondents are generally more confident in the protection provided by corporate computers, according to the report.

About 40 per cent believed that their work computers are better protected than their home computers against spam, spyware and phishing, and are more likely to click on suspicious links or websites using their work computers.

However, US respondents are also more likely to take most security threats seriously, especially relative to respondents from the UK.

Some 60 per cent of US respondents indicated that they view spyware as a serious threat, while only 48 per cent of UK end users viewed it as such.

Similarly, 48 per cent of US end users recognised the danger of spam, while only 27 per cent of UK end users perceived this to be a serious threat.

While end users in certain countries recognise the seriousness of threats, it seems that they are also more likely to take risks and open suspicious documents or click on suspicious links while using corporate computers.

Trend Micro puts this down to the availability and reliance on support teams in the corporate environment.

Users feel less personally responsible for security at work and more responsible on their home computers when their personal security is at stake.

Both sets of research found an increase in spam between 2005 and 2007, but UK respondents generally perceived security threats to be less serious in 2007, and fewer corporate end users in the US acknowledge having received spam.

The respondents in Germany, by contrast, consider all threats to be more serious in 2007 compared to 2005.