Interesting: back on May 27, my Tip of the Week was entitled “Assume Your Employees Ignore You.” I described how employees really pay little attention to company policy, or even actively break it.

Then, two weeks (to the day) later, Ponemon Institute released another superb study, sponsored by IronKey, this time entitled “Trends in Insider Compliance with Data Security Policies” with the following subtitle:

“Employees Evade and Ignore Security Policies”

If you are tempted to accuse me of collusion or conspiracy here, as if I was actually in on the Ponemon study, hold back! I had no involvement and knew nothing of the impending release. What I did know was the truth: employees evade and ignore security policies!

The study is full of juicy statistics that prove this critical, bottom-line fact.

So, this week’s Tip of the Week is to use good technology to “beat” employees. Not physically (I am pretty sure that’s illegal). Rather, defeat them. I hate to foster an adversarial relationship, but if you set policies designed to protect your business, and the employees undermine them, then in the end you need to employ methods to ensure effective protection.

A big piece of the puzzle is to develop good relationships with employees–the study itself even indicates that as employee good-will rises, non-compliance decreases, as we might expect.

But don’t rely on warm fuzzies to protect your critical data. Use unobtrusive technology designed not to be seen, heard, or messed with by employees. MyLaptopGPS is certainly one example, and IronKey’s own products are more examples.