Lapses in information security

Confidential pay details of staff working at RBS have been inadvertently leaked by the recruitment firm Hays (as reported in the Financial Times today).

The lapse in the management of confidential data is embarrassing to both Hays and to RBS. RBS is shedding many permanent roles and the data makes public the pay rates of temporary staff.

Such lapses impact not only on organisational/brand reputation, but can also have direct financial consequences.

A recent report by Symantec suggests the top ‘social media incidents’ for organisations are employees sharing too much information in a public forum and loss/exposure of confidential data.