According to the survey of 100 IT professionals conducted by the file transfer company Ipswitch, 64% said that they had no visibility of the files moving internally within their organizations, either.
90% of survey respondents admitted to using thumb drives all other external devices to move work-related files, the survey found, and two thirds of those surveyed admitted that they use personal email accounts to send work-related files. Perhaps more worryingly, one in four respondents admitted that they used personal email accounts to send files that were proprietary to their own organizations, with the intent of using that information in their next job.
Much of this problem seems to stem from the fact that employees are given little other option. Almost half of the IT executives questioned at the conference said that their companies do not provide employees with an effective way to send files securely. Only 49% of respondents knew of established internal policies that employers used for sending files internally, while only 53% worked at companies with policies for the external transfer of files.
Experts suggested that when it comes to accessing files, it is important to consider the employees' experience, and the ease with which they are able to get the job done, and to structure technical solutions around that.
"Users will follow the path of least resistance, and you want to make it so that the path of least resistance is also the most secure path," said Brian Bourne, founder of the Toronto-based SecTor conference.