Privileged Data

One in three IT professionals abuses administrative passwords to snoop on employee data, according to security vendor Cyber Ark. Information includes colleagues’ salary details and personal e-mails as well as company board meeting minutes. The survey also revealed another vulnerability with administrative passwords: they tend to change far less frequently than those of other employees. Thirty percent change every quarter and 9 percent never change at all, potentially allowing IT staff that have left an organization to continue to gain access.