14 DAY TRIAL // An investigation into enterprise IT security specialists revealed that approximately 80% felt workers are more vulnerable to phishing efforts now that they working from home, according to Help Net Security.
Over 59% believed that it was sufficient to use solutions such as email reminders (20%), video training (27%), and virtual private networks (12%) to mitigate the respondents' top security threats: brand and reputation, as well as legal danger, despite a dramatic increase in threats over the past year.
According to the results of the poll, 81% of IT executives believe that 90% or more ransomware attacks originate through email phishing. 18% believe their employees are unaware or don't comprehend the consequences of email phishing attacks on their firm.
Computer and information technology leaders spent the previous year putting significant effort to mitigate a growing risk to remote workers, including:
- Developing video courses on how to avoid phishing attacks (27%)
- Installing anti-phishing software (26%)
- Sending out regular emails with alerts about phishing attacks (20%)
- Providing remote training (via video conference) to new e-commerce employees (12%)
Only a few could identify sectors vulnerable to cyberattacks
According to this poll, just 52% participants thought their organization had a handle on the different company sectors most susceptible to an attack. Over half of the respondents replied “quite well” to “I don’t know”, a fact that suggests they cannot pinpoint the employees that are more likely to be at risk either.
The poll was conducted in July 2021 and included 800 technical and management employees from organizations in the United Kingdom and the United States. The participant organizations ranged in size from less than 250 to more than 5000 employees, and they worked in the financial, legal, healthcare, government, and information services sectors. 2% of those polled stated their employees already have the knowledge and skills necessary to protect themselves from phishing emails and shady websites, which is worrisome.
All respondents were members of a team that was responsible for IT system security or held a position of responsibility for IT system security inside their organizations. Privately held businesses account for 70% of all businesses, whereas publicly traded corporations represented 30%.