There’s a reason corporations have unique email servers for their employees, and that reason is security. You might be surprised to hear it, but common personal email accounts are regularly breached. Using personal email for work is a bad idea for those reasons, but did you know that it’s also high risk to access personal email while on the corporate network?
Accessing Personal Email at the Office
Limit Unauthorized Application Use
It may seem run of the mill, but there is a real risk in unauthorized application use on the job. Personal email is the most commonly used unauthorized application, along with online banking, online shopping, and instant messaging. All these applications present a high risk for data loss by an employee or even data theft by a hacker. Here’s why.
Hackers know that these personal applications are often unmonitored and therefore can provide easy access to a corporate network. Personal emails are easy access points for phishing and malware attacks which can provide direct access to corporate machines. Employees who use such unauthorized applications also risk infection from malicious sites and downloads.
According to CISCO, 78% of employees accessed personal email from business computers. 63% of employees admit to using work computers for personal use every day, while 83% admit to doing so at least sometimes. 70% of IT professionals believe that it is this use of unauthorized programs that result in as much as half of the data loss incidents experienced by their companies.
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Convenience vs. Security
Considering how risky this behavior is, it’s shocking how prevalent it is in the workforce. And most companies don’t even have policies against such actions. In particular, the use of personal email on corporate devices has become a widespread practice and many companies are simply unaware of the implications.
According to a Computer Economics survey of IT organizations, who would assumedly be more aware of such risks, only 17% of respondents say they block or monitor the use of personal webmail within the corporate network. 7% said they had a policy against such use but do not actively block or monitor those actions. And disturbingly, the vast majority of respondents said they had no policy against this practice whatsoever.
The problem may be an argument over convenience. As the practice is so widespread, it may only appear to be a concern to victims of hacks or to IT professionals. Many policymakers may be part of the problem. But educating your team about the risks of accessing personal applications while on the corporate network will help spread the awareness of how they are putting the security of the company at risk. From data leaking out to viruses and malware sneaking into your system, the convenience is very much not worth the risk.
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