Research released today by CWT, the global travel management company, reveals two in five (41%) Australian business travellers feel very confident about not compromising their employer’s data safety when traveling, compared with an average of 35% of business travelers globally.
Travellers from the Americas are significantly more confident (46%) than the average in Asia Pacific (28%), or Europe (27%).
“These results show there is still a lot to do around educating travellers on how to look after their company’s data. For instance, connectivity in public spaces can put company data at risk,” said Andrew Jordan, CWT’s Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer. “Awareness and training are key to protecting against any possible security breaches.”
When traveling, the three situations in which respondents were most concerned about exposing company data were having their laptops or other mobile devices stolen or lost (29%), using public Wi-Fi (21%), and working on their laptop or other mobile devices (9%). These were followed by unintentional sharing of company documents (9%), accessing company emails (8%), opening a file or visiting a website they shouldn’t have (8%), and disposing of paper documents (6%).
To a large extent, the concerns of Australian business travellers mirrored the global findings. The top worry for Aussies is having their laptops or other mobile devices stolen or lost (28%), followed by using public Wi-Fi (23%) and accessing company emails (11%).
These concerns are justified since 46% of business travellers globally – and 40% of road warriors from Australia – said they have been concerned about a security breach while online or trying to get online. And this was not the only issue: 25% of Aussies admitted to downloading an unknown file from an unrecognized sender (vs. 37% of travellers globally) – and 32% said they have opened a phishing email (vs. 37% of travelers globally).
Fortunately, most business travellers said they took prompt action when they became aware of a security or data breach. Around a third (29%) of Australian respondents said they notified their company’s IT department or management upon identifying the breach (vs. 34% of travelers globally), while 39% said they notified someone else in their company (vs. 25% of travelers globally). A further 29% of Australian business travellers said they immediately shut down their device (vs. 37% of travelers globally). Two-thirds (66%) of business travellers from Australia said they know how to report a phishing email appropriately – higher than the global average of 62%.
“These percentages can surely improve dramatically with better training on data safety,” said Jordan.
Interestingly, only 23% of the Australians surveyed (and 17% of business travellers globally) said that they received frequent and formal communication and guidance about data and internet security from their company.
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