The next big network threat - Generation Y

A recent Information Week article describes why those individuals who can't remember the Bee Gees are the next network threat to enter the corporate world.  That's right it's the Gen Y employees who pose the newest and greatest risk to network security.  Here are the top reasons Gen Y pose a security risk.

Since Nov. 5, three separate studies -- from Accenture, Intel, and ISACA, a major IT users group -- have indicted the youngest generation of employees as one of the enterprise's newest and most serious security risks. People under the age of 28 -- sometimes called Generation Y and sometimes called Millenials, depending on how you define the category -- are engaging in online behavior that could expose their organizations to data leakage and information theft, the studies say.

In a study published Nov. 13, Intel and the research firm of Penn Schoen & Berland Associates offered similar conclusions.  About half of the respondents regard Generation Y as a serious security concern, according to the study.

Younger employees' propensity to download non-sanctioned applications and social media tools was one of the chief reasons cited for IT professionals' concern. Risks posed by social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace were the most frequently mentioned, according to the study.

This survey clearly shows that younger employees are more likely to engage in online activities at work that put a business' IT infrastructure at risk," said Kent Anderson, a member of ISACA's Security Management Committee. "The fact that [they] are planning to spend the equivalent of more than half a work day doing holiday shopping from their work computer, combined with their lack of concern for how secure their computer is, points to an urgent need for employee education.