Workplace Violence Tops Security Threat List

Results of a survey conducted by global security services firm Pinkerton Inc., Westlake Village, Calif., show workplace violence to be the most important security threat to America's largest corporations. Based on 269 responses from security directors and executives at some of the largest U.S. companies, Pinkerton found the following to be the 10 most important security threats: 1. workplace violence, 2. crisis management/executive protection, 3. fraud/white collar crime, 4. employee screening concerns, 5. hardware/software theft, 6. general employee theft, 7. Internet/intranet security, 8. drugs in the workplace, 9. unethical business conduct, and 10. property crime. Concern about crisis management and executive protection increased the most, to the second-greatest concern, compared to No. 7 one year earlier. The survey, Top Security Threats Facing Corporate America, also found that among security executives in service businesses, hardware/software theft was considered the top security threat, while retailers identified employee theft as their biggest concern.