Brits travelling on business eavesdrop on confidential business conversations

(10/07/2008)

According to a new independent research by Regus, over two thirds of Brits travelling on business have eavesdropped on someone else's confidential business conversation and over a third have caught sight of sensitive documents or information on laptops, due to the rise in travelling professionals working in public places. Worryingly, over 10 per cent of these people have been able to use this information for their own business purposes.

The survey shows that almost half of travelling British professionals now spend at least half a day per week or more working in a public place, and just under half face the dilemma of needing a private place to make phone calls, or use proper office facilities, when travelling with work.

The international survey of 1000 respondents in the USA and UK also revealed that remote working has led to a growing professional culture where business is conducted in strange and inappropriate locations. British travelling professionals can find it so hard to find a place to work that one in six have resorted to working from toilets, over half in pubs and almost two thirds in busy restaurants.

Kurt Mroncz, UK Sales and Marketing Director, comments: “Many organisations just don’t realise the staggering problems which their staff face when out on the road. From a dangerous lack of privacy to difficult and absurd working environments, business travellers are often put in impossible positions as they try to carry out their professional role. Our new Businessworld membership card programme has been developed to solve this - people can drop into a professional and secure environment across our 950 locations globally, where they have excellent office resources at their fingertips.”

David Porter, Head of Security and Risk at Detica, says: “These findings point to a significant vulnerability in British corporate security. The growing tide of professionals expected to work ‘on the hoof’ without proper support, is putting the UK’s prized corporate intellectual property, trade secrets and deals at risk.

“I have overheard many sensitive conversations in trains, bars and restaurants - from lawyers discussing confidential client details to salespeople revealing key contacts. People seem to slip into a very casual security mindset when using laptops, PDAs and social networking sites. They naively think other people will not be interested or aware of what they are doing, when in reality this could not be further from the truth.”

The research identified some interesting variations in behaviour across the regions of the UK:
* The Welsh are the most likely to snoop on other people's calls with 77% admitting to listening into calls - followed by South Westerners (73%), South Easterners (71%), Londoners & Scots (68%), Midlanders (61%) with the North West remaining nobly aloof with just 52%
* Londoners are the most likely to exploit business information they have overheard - 17% of London respondents said they have used information they have overheard - compared with just 10% of North Easterners
* Over half of respondents from Wales (55%), London (50%), South East (56%), South West (67%) and Midlands (50%) admitted to working from the pub
* Londoners are the most likely to work in coffee shops (39%), perhaps because of the busy capital's cafe culture
* Scots are most likely to work from a service station or car park (32%), potentially indicating that they are more likely to have to drive longer distanced between meetings

The following security tips should be followed by travelling business professionals, to help keep their corporate information safe and confidential:
o When taking business calls in public, wait to discuss confidential issues over the phone until you're in a truly private place. Make clear to the person you are speaking to that you are in a place where you could be overheard and make use of project code names
o If you must work in a public places, keep documents safe in unlabelled, covered folders
o When working on laptops in public, a privacy guard can go some way to protecting your information. Password-protect your screen saver so information is hidden if you need to step away from your laptop
o If you're leaving your hotel room without your computer, lock it in the in-room safe, rather than leaving it on a desk or in your briefcase

Related topics:  Data management and data security   Locks and safes   Security management and policies 

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