With more than 50,000 security threats emerging daily, internal threats from employees pose a challenge for IT managers to secure organizations. While firewalls and policies aim to enhance security, over a third of employees are unaware of security policies, and many ignore rules by copying confidential information or working without passwords. Educating employees on security procedures and making policies part of daily work can help organizations better protect sensitive data from both internal and external threats.

1. Think you’re secure?
Why you may be surprised.
With more than 50,000 security threats emerging each day, IT managers like
you have a challenging job. Even with carefully crafted policies, the biggest threat
may come from inside your organization. Firewalls, anti-virus software, rules and
regulations can only do so much. The final barrier is employee behavior and, when
you’re waging the war against laid-back attitudes, culprits can be everywhere.
Who’s not worried?
Almost two-thirds of
U.S. employees never
or rarely worry about
confidential information
remaining secure.
Why you should be:
51
%
vs.
68 55
%
of women
76
%
57
%
of men
%
of households
earning $35k–$49.9k
of workers copy,
scan or print
confidential work
of households
earning $75k+
78
%
70
%
54
%
of westerners
of workers are not
prompted to enter
a password
of northeasterners
Who’s ignoring the rules?
1 in 10 rarely or never
follow the policy
“I didn’t know there was a policy.”
2 in 10 are not aware
a policy even exists
vs.
24% of women
30
%
18- to 34-year-olds are nearly
twice as likely to indicate this
than any other age group
Security policy awareness
appears to improve with
household income.
of those with
a high school
degree or less
8% of men
18
%
of those with some
college education
or more
36%
% unaware
87% of employees work at a company that
has an IT security policy—however:
29%
21%
13%
$35k
or less
$35k–
$49.9k
$50k–
$74.9k
$75k+
What can you do?
With the right balance of technology, people and process,
you can protect sensitive data wherever it resides.
Make your IT security policy more than a written
document. Communicate the how and the why
regularly and require your policy to be part of dayto-day procedures through supporting technology.
Nothing does more than a proactive approach to
policy awareness and adherence. When you think
you’ve kicked worry to the wayside, think again—
the threats are all around and always changing.
And security is everyone’s responsibility.
For more about how Xerox can help,
visit xerox.com/security.
Source: Based on the IT/MFP Security Study conducted by Harris Interactive, 2012.
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