Around the Net

Piracy Report: Are Media Employees The Biggest Problem?

Maybe members of the RIAA and MPAA should turn their attention inward: a new report says media companies--of all places--should consider banning MP3 music players and memory sticks from their offices because employees are using them to steal data. The report, from professional services firm Deloitte, says more than half the world's media companies were victims of data theft last year, and employees were often the culprits. The research points to insufficient protection from inside the IT systems at media and telecom firms. This, too, despite the fact that more and more assets are becoming digital. In this day and age, we all know that intellectual property can be stolen more easily--especially at work. As one VP from McAfee, the digital security company, says: "There's this great myth that people sit in darkened rooms hacking, which they do--[but] the biggest threat is still the staff." According to research from AT&T, film studio employees are transferring new films onto memory sticks or iPods, and then leaking them out to the Internet. Fifty-four percent of the 150 global companies admitted to having their security systems breached in the last 12 months.

Read the whole story at Financial Times »

Next story loading loading..