Whilst our Generation Y colleagues provide significant commercial opportunity for many businesses such as advertising, shopping, gaming, and  e-commerce, and entrepreneurial benefits for others, they are also proving a headache. A headache for those who have yet to redefine their IT strategies in order to accommodate integrated media platforms whilst safeguarding company security and data protection

In “IT Security’s Next Big Threat: Young People”, in Dark Reading, editor Tim Wilson concludes from three recent studies that our Yers “are engaging in online behaviour that could expose their organizations to data leakage and information theft”. The question being whether it is the behaviours or the company policies and training that are ultimately to blame.

More and more people are using Instant Messaging, social networking, open source technology, and other online applications rather than traditional tools and email, many of which are not supported by their employers. On top of this there appears to be a growing need for online learning suites.

Chris Sparshott provided the keynote at the Digital Technologies Professional Learning Symposium in Auckland, NZ,  recently, using a Generation Y persona to illustrate his perspective on the need for training and education to embrace the benefits of the computer/video gaming, virtual worlds and 3D UIs that our Y’ers and Generation Z have grown up with. David Williamson Schaffer long pointed out the benefit of educational games that can bring players together, promote interactive learning and help individuals absorb fairly dry complex topics, for example.  Also Daniel Sieberg from CBS News more recently reported on the benefits of the right games in education to help individuals learn, solve problems and overcome obstacles.  

Whilst some organisations are looking to revise their platforms to accommodate the new tools and new ways of working, others are tightening their policies whilst many continue to remain exposed in more ways than one. 

The three studies mentioned above came from Accenture, Intel and ISACA (a major IT users group):

ISACA focussed on online shopping whilst at work, surveying over 900 consumers and over 3,000 IT professionals concluding that 63% of employees plan to shop online using their office computers. The greatest threat appeared to come from the 18-24 year age group, with up to 40% admitting they would spend up to some hours online shopping in a given period and almost half admitting they would pay more attention to the security of their home PC than that at work.

Accenture‘s study involved 400 individuals aged 14-27 and found that 60% were either unaware or disinclined to follow IT policies.  Of the 18-22 age group, 27% of them were using Instant Messaging and 28% social networking sites whilst at work. Overall it appeared that Y’ers are spending less and less time on email and blogging and more and more time on messaging, social networking and virtual communities.  Many were downloading non-standard technology from public web sites such as open source communities, etc.  The study concluded that if companies do not provide state-of-the-art technologies then GenY will acquire them anyway. “In order to acquire and retain the best talent, organizations must understand the technologies that the new workforce expects – and then find a way to support their employees without compromising enterprise security.”

Intel’s study had similar conclusions; they recognised that younger employees were bringing positive benefits to their organisations and their use of cutting edge technology, but they were also creating new and often serious security risks. Social networking sites were seen by many HR professionals to carry particular risks.  However, nearly 30% of the IT professionals surveyed indicated that their organisations were adapting their policies to meet the demands of their new Y colleagues and allowing employees to access work e-mail from non-company smartphones or other devices.

Overall the studies showed that employers need to embrace new communication and collaboration platforms and to review their IT security and policy education approach.

Look out for future articles on how organisations are and can embrace integrated media platforms, mobile working and new learning mechanisms to keep the workforce engaged and evolving.