Corporate bargain: employees would sell passwords for just £100

Facebook, Playstation, Malaysia Airlines – the news has recently been plagued by high-profile security breaches and hacks, yet a survey has highlighted widespread employee indifference towards protecting sensitive corporate data.

In fact, the SailPoint survey revealed an alarming number of employees surveyed admitted they would sell their passwords, some for as little as £100.

In addition to blatant sabotage, the survey also confirmed that employees are lax about password management in general.

One in five employees share login information for corporate apps, with the issue compounded with the fact that 56% are guilty of some level of daily password reuse for the corporate applications they access. As many as 14% of employees use the same password across all applications.

"Employees may have moved away from the post-it note password list, but using the same password across personal and work applications exposes the company," said Kevin Cunningham, president and founder of SailPoint.

"Just think of the major breaches that occurred in 2014 requiring users to change their passwords on social media. If those were the same passwords being used to access mission critical applications, it’s very easy for hacking organisations to take advantage and get into more valuable areas."

"The fact is that password reuse poses a significant risk to any organisation – but the good news is that there are solutions that can quickly address the problem."

To combat password reuse, SailPoint’s SaaS-based identity and access management solution, IdentityNow, provides employees with a single place to store passwords.

Cunningham continued: "We knew password management was a pain point for companies around the world, but our recent survey showed us how much companies are struggling. We believe this offer is a unique way to demonstrate SailPoint’s innovative approach to identity and access management."

"And, there’s no risk, because qualified organisations can replace their outdated solutions with SailPoint’s IdentityNow Password Management Service for less than they’re already spending on a tool that isn’t working."

SailPoint commissioned Vanson Bourne to interview 1,000 office workers at large companies with at least 3,000 employees across Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.