Clean Desk Policy

A policy which encourages employees to remove sensitive documents or materials from their workspace when they are not in use. A clean desk policy hopes to mitigate the risk of the insider threat. This includes not only existing employees, but also “invisible insiders”, such as contract cleaners or anyone who has access to employee workspaces. A common example of a clean desk policy breach is employees leaving sticky notes containing passwords at their workstation, and a much overlooked breach of a clean desk policy is sending private documents to a communal printer when a private one should be used instead.