Employees at smaller companies are more likely to engage in behaviour that puts their employers at risk.

Employees in small companies take more online risks while on the company network compared to their counterparts in larger organisations, according to the results of a study conducted by security firm, Trend Micro.

Certain risky activities such as browsing Web sites unrelated to work, making online purchases, visiting social networking sites, downloading executable files and checking personal Web-based email were more likely to take place in small businesses. 32% of small business employees in the UK have admitted to downloading executable files that can potentially lead to Trojan or virus attacks and, ultimately, identity and data theft. 

In all countries surveyed, spam is more commonly reported among end users in smaller organisations:  80% of UK small business employees have reported spam. In the UK, phishing is more commonly reported among end users in smaller organisations and the number of reported attacks has steadily increased since 2005. This year, 50% of small business end users reported attacks.