Employees are now regarded as a greater danger to workplace cyber security than the gangs of hackers and virus writers launching targeted attacks from outside the firewall. That is the perception of 75 per cent of Australian information technology managers who took part in an international IBM security survey.

With email and instant messaging proving increasingly popular and devices such as laptop computers, mobile phones and USB storage devices more commonplace in the office, the opportunities for workplace crime are growing. "People are becoming the weakest link. A fluid work force with diminished loyalty to organisations is being exacerbated by the fact that people do not always realise the value of information that they deal with," said Claudia Warwar, managing consultant at IBM BCS Security and Privacy Practice.

The link for this article located at The Age AU is no longer available.