Wiretap Publishes First Human Behavior Risk Analysis Report

Report features research and analysis of more than one million enterprise collaboration messages from tens of thousands of authors, spotlighting analysis of behavior that threatens organizational security, compliance and culture.

COLUMBUS, OH – Wiretap, a leading innovator of solutions designed to enhance security and governance of enterprise collaboration environments, today announced general distribution of its first Human Behavior Risk Analysis Report, spanning analysis and in-depth research of employee behavior that threatens organizational security, compliance and culture.

The 29-page report is chock-full of facts, findings, analysis and observations that spotlight the human behavior risks behind messages exchanged on today’s rapidly growing enterprise collaboration networks. The analysis is presented in three sections: Sentiment (attitude, thought or judgment prompted by a feeling); Toxicity (sexual harassment, bullying, racial slurs – behavior that make people feel unsafe, isolated and harassed); and Insider Threats (human error, negligence or malicious intent).

Research for the Human Behavior Risk Analysis Report was led by Dr. Jason Morgan, Wiretap’s Vice President Behavioral Intelligence. Morgan said the intent of the report was to expose commonly overlooked organizational blind spots, and illustrate where technology can play a key role in helping to understand and manage collaboration.

“Our report sheds light on what we know – that human behavior is unpredictable – and despite the small population of risky users engaging in this behavior, organizations must be able to identify toxic actors before they ruin company culture,” Morgan said. “Ultimately organizations need to track sentiment and tone of both public and private conversations to get a true pulse on the health of their community, and to assess any areas of potential risk.”

Key Findings:

  • Approximately 25 percent of users author more than 80 percent of all messages.
  • Employees tend to communicate in a much more casual and candid manner on these tools than more traditional platforms like email.
  • Toxic behavior is mostly driven by a small group of employees engaged in private conversation.
  • Negative messages live in the dark corners of digital collaboration.

Negative Messages:

  • 1 out of every 190 private messages and 1 of every 280 public messages are negative in sentiment.
  • Passwords shared in 1 in 149 private messages and 1 in 262 public messages.
  • Confidential information shared in 1 in 135 private messages and 1 in 118 public messages.
  • 1 of 170 messages (including public messages) has words associated with sex.

Private Messaging:

  • 43 percent of all messages are private.
  • Messages in private groups are 135 percent more likely to be toxic than messages in a public environment.
  • Messages in a 1:1 conversation are 250 percent more likely to be toxic than messages in a public environment.

Exclusive use of private messages:

  • 1 out of every 7 people exclusively use private messaging.
  • Users who exclusively use private messages are 160 percent more likely to be toxic than messages in a public environment.

In an organization with 15,000 employees, 1-2 employees send a sum of approximately 9 alarming messages every day.

Click Here to Download the Report

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