Poor internal security procedures and insufficient employee authentication systems are leaving UK businesses prone to internal fraud and intellectual property theft, according to a computer crime survey.

Employees at one in five large UK organisations can gain unauthorised access to sensitive information because of insufficient identity and access management processes, says the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI’s) biennial security report.

The Information Security Breaches 2006 survey says that while incidents of fraud are low, when they do occur the impact is greater than any other security incidents.

‘Financial fraud has never been palatable, but if there is also reputational damage, share price impact or loss of intellectual property it is even more alarming,’ said Andrew Beard, director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, which conducted the survey.

Separate research published this week by BDO Stoy Hayward says employee fraud rose 80 per cent last year, costing firms £67m.

Andrew Durant, BDO’s head of fraud investigation, says to combat such crimes firms need better employee access management and fraud detection systems.

But detective chief inspector Stuart Dark from the Metropolitan Police’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit, says employee screening and internal processes are equally important.

‘The weak point is often a fault in terms of internal procedures,’ said Dark.

The full report will be released at InfoSecurity Europe in London in April.

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