Employees lack awareness in cyber security

New research suggests that any advice given by cyber security professionals on how educating employees is a key to defending businesses from cyber attacks has been ignored.

A study has been carried out by ISCACA, an association which advocates for professionals in cyber security, along with other areas in IT. It surveyed 2,000 consumers and found that over 50% have not received any training in cyber awareness.

What this lack of training has resulted in is over one on three (36%) of employees being unable to recognise phishing emails, 19% falling for phishing scams, and 33% opting for high-speed internet as opposed to secure connections.

The report, ‘2016 Cyber Security Perceptions’, also focuses on how UK employees put company data at risk. The study found that 11% failed to use two-factor authentication due to inconvenience, 15% used USB sticks that didn’t belong to them, 14% used simple passwords so that they would not forget them, and 16% even shared passwords.

Christos Dimitriadis, Ph.D., who chairs the board of directors on ISACA, said:

“It is critically important that we create awareness in cyber security and in multiple roles within an organisation. The human factor is critical when creating cyber security capability, and education based on practical guidance is key to reducing the related business risks.”

These numbers are concerning and unacceptable in an age when we have so much cyber knowledge at our disposal. Businesses should have at least one cyber professional on site to ensure that such practices are a thing of the past. The best way to achieve this would be to post cyber security jobs and ensure that any candidates are thoroughly qualified for the job.