In a survey commissioned by IT security firm Forcepoint of just under 900 IT professionals, 40 percent of commercial sector respondents and 36 percent working in the public sector said they had privileged access to sensitive data through work.

Another third (38 percent public sector and 36 percent private) said they had access privileges despite not needing them.

Out of more than 1,000 respondents, just 14 percent from the private sector thought their org was fully aware of who had access to all this sensitive data

Another survey carried out by the US Ponemon Institute, found that about 23 percent of IT pros across the board reckoned that privileged access to data and systems was handed out like jelly babies.

Access management is a critical topic for IT security bods, especially as COVID-19-induced remote working introduces challenges for the monitoring of data access and intra-org flows.