Purple dragons pimp security for Unilever

Food giant Unilever is turning to virtual worlds and giant purple dragons to turn staff on to guarding valuable corporate data.

In an attempt to woo the "digital natives" - the under-35s who make up the bulk of Unilever's 165,000 staff worldwide - the company has turned to a Second Life-based virtual world.

It launched its security drive on its own private complex in the virtual world, a gleaming glass office on a sun-drenched leafy island, looking out on a glistening sea.

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In a video of the launch shown at the Gartner IT Security Summit on Monday, company CEO Patrick Cescau speaks to a gathering of tanned, smiling staff about the importance of security, while one woman finds her avatar transformed into a giant purple dragon by an impostor after she leaves her password on display.

Andrew Strong, global director of security told the summit that trials of the virtual world system had already proved successful, with 99.5 per cent of 2,500 staff completing its "Teach and Test" online data security survey after watching the launch video.

Strong said this was a step away from simply throwing money at expensive technology to directly tackling the security problems staff pose.

He said: "The vast majority of people working at Unilever are under 35 and they will relate to this approach more than some stock video.

"Unilever is doing a lot of work with Second Life and we have our own isolated environment that we can use."

The Second Life video promotes the "Information Security Knowledge Zone", a website offering staff advice on how to protect personal and company data and a tickertape with the latest information security news.

The programme is ongoing and Strong says the message being broadcast to staff will adapt to focus on the areas of greatest risk, based on feedback from the tests, independent research, security breaches and policy compliance.

According to the Unilever exec, the programme is good value for money, costing about £300,000 over five years to implement.