Ministry of Defence secrets exposed by people sending files to personal email accounts, documents show

Although documents obtained by Sky News were redacted to obscure the nature of the secret information, they reveal a record number of security breaches in 2020 originating from the British military’s private sector partners.

Please see the below rapid response comment from Tim Sadler, CEO and co-founder of human layer security company Tessian, highlighting the problem.

Tim Sadler, CEO and co-founder of human layer security company Tessian:

“People sending data to personal emails accounts is a much bigger problem than most organisations and institutions even realise. According to our data, employees send company sensitive information to personal email accounts 38x more often than their IT and security leaders expect.

“The problem is that data loss prevention has only been made more challenging since staff have been working remotely as employees send data to their personal accounts to print out or work on documents on home devices. While it might seem harmless, highly sensitive information in those emails now sits in an environment that is not secured by the company, leaving it vulnerable to cybercriminals.

“Today’s reports are an important reminder to all companies to remind employees of data sharing policies and ensure there are procedures in place to prevent data loss caused by people sending emails home.”