IT espionage is a growing problem, says expert

Written by Jessie Richards

Businesses need to be aware of the increasing problem of cyber espionage, which may illustrate the importance of installing security software.

Rick Caccia, vice president for product marketing at Arcsight, told IT Pro that there is a rising trend for employees to take their organisation's data and sell it on to its rivals.

"This has always been happening, but the big change in the last decade is that more and more information is online and accessible to employees," he explained.

The expert also told the news provider that the ongoing economic downturn could be making it more tempting for workers to steal information for a profit.

Mr Caccia recommended that IT outsourcing users tackle the problem by ensuring that they have effective controls on who can access sensitive data and monitoring which employees look at this information.

Last week, Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer for Finjan, said that the recent hack of the Guardian Job website's database shows that potential IT security vulnerabilities can be found in all systems.