The Human Element in IT Security

The air express industry, like many other businesses, has rapidly transformed the way it serves customers over the past few years, through the aggressive and ingenious use of the latest information technology (IT). FedEx spends more than US$1 billion every year on IT. Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx, once said, “The information about the package is as important as the package itself.”

But these advances come with a price: the need to protect the system from damaging viruses, accidental data breaches and even deliberate attacks. Breaches can often start in a very personal way–with friends over a cup of coffee, at a café where employees go with a work PC and surf the net or do personal e-mail. Most of us are familiar with the technology fixes that form one side of the picture, including firewalls, passwords and digital certificates. However, the policy that supports these is equally important.

It is becoming vital for any successful global business not only to have an excellent security policy in place, but also to ensure that the policy is prioritised and communicated in an efficient and meaningful way.