Outsourcing risky for security

13:00 2nd October 2008

Companies that outsource their IT operations to offshore locations often overlook behavioural and cultural differences when developing their security risk-management plans, a new survey of IT managers has found.

The poll of 2,000 IT decision makers, released by the network management firm Cisco, revealed that employee behaviour can vary by country and culture, which can have a direct effect on the threats posed to corporate data.

Marie Hatter, Cisco's vice president of network and security solutions, explained that there sometimes appears to be more tolerance in other countries for behaviour that would appear risky in the UK.

As an example, 64 per cent of respondents surveyed in China and half of those in Brazil said that employees at their companies allowed outsiders to use corporate laptops and mobile devices without suspicion.

"You need to better understand the dynamics of the country you are doing business with, and ensure that your policy is localised," Ms Hatter said.

Last week, a Logica survey discovered that UK businesses are also ignoring the risk of security breaches.

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