Business travelers more likely to be robbed of their digital data: survey

One in five people have been a target of cyber-crime while abroad, rising to almost a third of senior business managers, says Kaspersky Lab

Business travellers are more likely to be swindled out of private and corporate data than of their travel money, a new report says, as indiscriminate online behaviour, particularly among senior executives, plays into the hands of cybercriminals.

According to the report by security solutions firm Kaspersky Lab, one in five people have been a target of cyber-crime while abroad, rising to almost a third (31%) of senior business managers. Despite not having the security of their office networks, more than half of those traveling for work (54%), and up to 62% of senior executives, make no changes to their online behaviour when abroad,  including handling confidential data.

The study polled 11,850 people from across Europe, Russia, Latin America, Asia Pacific and the US. It found the pressure from work to get online is clouding business travellers' judgement. 

“This report shows us that cybercrime is a real hazard while traveling, and employees are putting confidential business information at risk. The insight provided by the report should be a red flag for corporate information security specialists, as the business travel behavior we have unearthed here presents a significant corporate data protection challenge,” said Konstantin Voronkov, Head of Endpoint Product Management at Kaspersky Lab. 

The report further said three in five (59%) of people in senior roles say they try to log on as quickly as possible upon arrival abroad because there is an expectation at work that they will stay connected. By the time business travellers reach the arrivals terminal, one in six is using a work device to get online. 

Almost half (48%) of senior managers and more than two in five (43%) of mid-level managers use unsecure public access Wi-Fi networks to connect their work devices when abroad. At least two in five (44% and 40%, respectively) use Wi-Fi to transmit work emails with sensitive or confidential attachments. 

One reason business travellers are doing so, the report finds, is a widely held assumption their work devices are inherently more secure than private communications tools, regardless of their connectivity. Two in five (41%) expect their employers to have set strong security measures. This is most pronounced among business leaders (53%) and mid-level executives (46%). 

Twice as many (47%) think that, if employers are to send staff overseas, they must accept any security risks that go with it. But a large proportion of business travellers, and particularly business leaders, are not helping with their indiscriminate behaviour when abroad, the report said.

One in five (20%) senior executives admit to using work devices to access websites of a sensitive nature via Wi-Fi – compared to an average 12%. One in four (27%) have done the same for online banking – compared to an average 16%.