A recent survey of 110 U.S. government employees who hold a security clearance at their organization found that more respondents listed heights, food poisoning and doctor/dentist visits as one of their biggest fears than having their company's files stolen in a breach.
Only 14 percent of surveyed part-time or full-time government employees considered breaches to be among their biggest nightmares -- a number that barely beat out public speaking (13 percent), ghosts (12 percent) and an alien invasion (11 percent).
Donald Trump was the most commonly cited fear (35 percent of respondents), followed by Hillary Clinton (30 percent) and a nuclear attack from North Korea (also 30 percent). Having a credit or debit card stolen and total governmental collapse was cited by 25 percent of respondents, while heights, food poisoning and doctor/dentist visits were named 17, 17 and 15 percent of the time, respectively.
The peculiar survey was part of a larger collaboration between Dtex Systems and YouGov researchers, who recently polled over 1,000 public and private sector U.S. employees. On Tuesday, Dtex released a report that specifically focuses on the security perception and behaviors of the 110 government employees with security clearance who participated in the study.
Dtex also found that 29 percent of the surveyed government workers believe they're more likely to be struck by lightning than experience a compromise of their organization's data, while 43 agreed that their place of employment will "probably" never be compromised.
