Close to 15% of employees access private data at work

Asset disposal specialist DSA Connect carried out the research in April this year, interviewing around 1,000 people from the UK about their experiences with data breaches in the last five years.

DSA Connect said the findings portray a huge risk around the security of data held on employers’ systems.

It explained employers could be exposed to more fraud and data breaches during the pandemic, as many employers who reduce workforces to save costs will leave employees feeling increasingly aggrieved and angry. In tun, it said, this will increase the chances of malicious activity around data breaches caused by disaffected employees.

In terms of the specifics around what employees saw that they should not have had access to:

• Seven percent saw managers/colleagues’ salaries;
• Six percent saw private correspondence between their employers and clients;
• Five percent saw private photos belonging to someone else;
• Four percent saw personal financial details of clients and/or colleagues;
• Three parent saw health records of third parties.

Harry Benham, chair of DSA Connect, said: “Our findings suggest many employers have serious lapses in their data security provision, leaving themselves open to various potential data breaches. The cost of these can run into tens of thousands of pounds in the form of fines and lost business. It can also cause huge damage to an organisation’s reputation and brand if news of a data breach becomes known.”