Low cyber IQ among employees poses threat

The findings illustrate responses from organisations and their employees on cyber security practices across the US and the UK. The report has revealed that two-thirds (63 %) of UK businesses believe that their organisation is highly protected from attempts by outsiders to gain access to their systems and data. A similar proportion of organisations (66 %) maintain that they have the right processes in place to adequately react to privacy and security threats.

Nevertheless, UK employees ranked “insufficient understanding” (61 %) as the biggest barrier to their organisation effectively managing its cyber risk. Nearly half (46 %) spent 30 minutes or less on cybersecurity training in 2016, and over a quarter (27 %) received none at all.

Moreover, the employees that did complete cyber training, nearly two-thirds (62 %) admitted they “only completed the training because it was required”, and nearly half (44 %) believe that “opening any email on their work computer is safe”, suggesting that the employees may not be engaged or feel the personal accountability necessary to drive long-term, sustainable behaviours.

Some additional findings include over one third of employees surveyed have logged into their work-designated computer or mobile device over an unsecured public network (such as public Wi-Fi) and only 40 % of the employers surveyed felt that they had made progress addressing cybersecurity factors tied to human error and behaviours in the last three years.