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Protecting company data from....employees?

Protecting the company data is becoming more of a challenge and more of a chore, with IT professionals reporting that data protection is rapidly becoming one of their key job responsibilities. But in the midst of talk of firewalls and better proxy servers, don't forget about the single biggest thing you need to protect your data from: the employees. And we're not just talking about the normal data loss issues here, but intentional intrusions into the company data.

A report from Kessler & Associates, an investigative and accounting firm, shows that theft of proprietary information has doubled in the past three years, rising from $20 million in 1997 to $42 million in 1999.

They also report that the primary source for unauthorized intrusions is disgruntled employees -- not hackers.

Employees make up 35 percent of all computer intrusions

According to Kessler, disgruntled employees account for 35% of all corporate computer intrusions, while hackers make up approximately 28%. The rest of the intrusions are spread among foreign corporations, governments and US corporations.

Michael Kessler, the company's president, expects the threat to computer systems to continue. He said, "there must be heightened awareness of the growing number and variety of computer security breaches that can weaken a company's balance sheet."

Information for this article came from www.emarketer.com. For more information on Kessler & Associates, see www.investigation.com.