Companies warned on computer security

Computer Associates (CA) have urged companies to tighten on security and management processes in advance of the summer temp-worker season.

The number of temporary workers swells each summer with students and seasonal workers, and CA says companies need to be on their guard to ensure security practices remain tight.

CA consultants have found that a third of all damage inflicted on a company's network or information systems can be traced back to internal sources.

CA also found that companies may take up to four days to add a new user, with each addition taking the security administrator on average 30 minutes to process.

This time and cost burden leads many to ignore security best practices, to reduce the administrative burden.

Matt Brennan, Country Manager at Computer Associates in Ireland said many companies pile on access rights to applications and databases to temps to save time, and leave themselves open to security risks.

Simon Perry, vice-president of eTrust, EMEA at Computer Associates said

"This approach is leaving companies all over Europe including Ireland with a long-term legacy of financial damage and security risks, all from mismanagement of a temporary staffing resource."