FSN: DTI Survey says companies not doing enough to reduce the risk of electronic identity theft

DTI Survey says companies not doing enough to reduce the risk of electronic identity theft

20th March 2006
Ninety-nine percent of UK companies are still not implementing all the safeguards available to them to manage and control access for the right users to their systems and reduce the risk of crimes such as electronic identity theft, a new survey shows. Just one percent of companies have in place all the pieces of the identity and access management jigsaw, according to findings from the 2006 Department of Trade and Industry's biennial Information Security Breaches Survey, conducted by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The survey showed, however, that where organisations did have all identity and access management safeguards in place, none reported a single identity-related security incident. The full results of the survey will be launched at Infosecurity Europe in London 25-27 April.

Compliance with laws and regulations has become the key driver (90 percent) for managing and controlling systems access, taking over from reducing cost of user access management and enabling new ventures over the internet. More businesses are using strong authentication techniques such as hardware tokens or digital certificates than ever. However, single factor authentication continues to prevail with 80 percent of companies still relying on passwords alone.

More firms are now using electronic requests (typically email) to notify changes to access rights; in a quarter of large businesses, authorisation of a user request now triggers the automatic set-up of access rights (so-called user provisioning). Andrew Beard, the director from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP leading the survey, said:

"Identity theft and phishing are on the increase, particularly in financial services and telecoms providers. Several businesses reported daily attacks of this nature. It is all the more important therefore that companies adopt an integrated approach to identity and access management; those that have, are seeing real benefits from their investment.”

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