Who are the biggest data leakers in your organisation? Research released this week by Orthus found that information technology (IT) personnel were responsible for 30 percent of all incidents of data leakage identified during the course of the year's research.

"The finding strongly supported the premise that trusted users are the most likely to be the source of information leaks," Orthus concluded. The research also found that the customer service department was responsible for 22 percent of the incidents, while other non-traditional departments, third party and contractors were responsible for another 16 percent.

Sales departments were responsible for 12 percent and so on down. Legal departments were the most conscientious, being responsible for only two percent of the incidents identified as data leakage.

"The research proves the rule: that the higher level of access privileges — the greater the propensity for abuse," Orthus advises. "Companies need to address the insider as the primary threat to their business. Until this is done no real security can be achieved."

The research is probably the most complete done to date. Orthus used data from monitoring about 100,000 hours of user activity captured over the last year through its data leakage audit service.

Orthus' software analysed the ways in which users accessed, processed, stored and transmitted corporate sensitive information including personal information, financial information, and intellectual property.

It identified which users were removing sensitive data, where they worked and how and when it was removed.

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It's not the length of your vacation that counts, it's weaning yourself off work at a distance that counts, according to a study by a researcher at Tel Aviv University.

With the Christmas holidays coming up, that's good advice, both for companies and individuals. The problem lies with electronic connectivity, which has made work at a distance possible anytime and almost anywhere, except for the internet dark spots of the world.

Dov Eden, an organisational psychologist, says his 10-year research project measured relief from chronic job stress before, during, and after vacations away from the workplace. He found that electronic connectivity exacts a price from those who stay wired into the office while away from work. It marks the end of true 'respite relief' and is a cause of chronic job stress.

"Using work cell phones and checking company e-mail at the poolside is not a vacation," Eden says in releasing some of his findings. "Persons who do this are shackled to electronic tethers which in my opinion is little different from being in jail."

He advises managers to insist that employees turn in their work cellphones before taking off.

"Employees who feel compelled to be at the beck and call of work at all times are unlikely to recover from the ill-effects of chronic job stress. This is a causal chain that eventually gets internalised as psychological and behavioural responses that can bring on serious chronic disease." Words well said.

I scooter around Montpellier and in one day last week I saw three people at different times walk across roadways completely oblivious to traffic. Why? They were so engrossed in their cell phone conversations they completely forgot where they were.

It's not the first time I've seen this happen, but three in a day was a bit much. I began to wonder how many pedestrians have had accidents due to cell phone oblivion.

It turns out that it happens more often than one would think. Last year researchers Julie Hatfield and Susanne Murphy of the University of New South Wales in Australia reported that they observed about 500 people crossing the street. Those talking on a cell phone appeared more distracted than those who were not, they reported in Accident Analysis & Prevention magazine.

Men engrossed in cell phone conversations crossed more slowly at intersections without traffic signals. Women on the phone also crossed more slowly, but were also less likely to look at traffic before crossing.

The problem also got noticed in New York state, where a senator from Brooklyn tried to get legislation passed that would have banned pedestrians from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City and Buffalo. Senator Carl Kruger proposed the ban after two pedestrian deaths in his district, one of which involved a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed while crossing the street with an iPod to his ears.

Of course the proposal was ditched as being too intrusive and anyway, would have been impossible to enforce. Everyone in New York would be paying the proposed fine!

Send any of your comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed[AT]gmail.com.