How your favourite brew could be putting company data at risk

Oct. 8, 2014 - PRLog -- Workers globally are putting business privacy at risk when out of the office. According to the findings of the latest Regus survey which canvassed over 22,000 respondents in over 100 countries, the most perilous locations are cafés (59%).

Although cafés are often used as a handy time-out point to catch up on tasks while on-the-go, this is where the privacy of documents and conversations is most at risk, followed by hotel bars and lounges (50%) and on flights (46%). Campus-style canteens also offer little privacy (29%).


The daily commute can also be risky with public transport, such as trains (42%), posing a threat to the privacy of sensitive work information. Most disheartening is that business travellers say that confidential information is at risk on flights (46%), where neighbouring passengers and anyone sitting behind them can easily read into their open laptop.

In Greater China, the top three locations where confidential business information is most at riskvary significantly. In Hong Kong, they are cafes (69%), hotel bars and lounges (54%) and airline business lounges (46%); in China, they are cafes (64%), flights (53%) and trains (47%); in Taiwan, they are cafes (69%), campus-style work facility canteens (56%) and the underground railway (48%).


Other interesting results:

·      Mobile conversations are the most easily captured (69%), followed by printed documents that can easily be read by people peering over one’s shoulders (62%).

·      Open laptops (59%) are easy prey for snoopers.

·      Approximately 23% of respondents were concerned about others craning their necks to read information displayed on smartphone screens.

“Privacy remains a huge concern for workers travelling to work on their daily commute, but also for those taking a pit-stop at a café between meetings, or catching up on email in the hotel lounge,” said John Henderson, Chief Financial Officer, Regus Asia-Pacific.

“The increasing need to remain connected and productive via portable devices and laptops means that workers can easily find somewhere to quickly catch up on tasks. But each time they do so, they can be putting their sensitive business information at risk of prying eyes and ears. For this reason, workers need a professional workspace environment where they can work flexibly, popping in from time to time while on-the-go, but be assured that their private business will not be exposed.”

-Ends-

Methodology

Over 22,000 business respondents from 100 countries were interviewed via online survey during July 2014. These were sourced from Regus’ global contacts database of over 1 million business-people worldwide which is highly representative of senior managers and owners in business across the globe. Respondents were also asked to delve deeper into the motivations for some of their preferences explaining the benefits of collaborative workplaces and the downfalls of traditional work arrangements that require lengthy commutes and rarely provide professional drop-in locations for workers traveling or moving to and from meetings.

The survey was managed and administered by the independent organisation, MindMetre Research.

About Regus

Regus is the global workplace provider.

Its network of more than 2,000 business centres in 104 countries provides convenient, high-quality, fully serviced spaces for people to work, whether for a few minutes or a few years. Companies like Google, Toshiba and GlaxoSmithKline choose Regus so that they can work flexibly and make their businesses more successful.

The key to flexible working is convenience and so Regus is opening wherever its 1.8 million members want support - city centres, suburban districts, shopping centres and retail outlets, railway stations, motorway service stations and even community centres.

Founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1989, Regus is based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange.