Most businesses will invest their time and money into cyber security programmes and protection but one area that is often neglected, however, is employee cyber security training.
Research conducted by Microsoft recently highlighted the role that employees play in cyber security breaches, noting that they are often the weak link in the process. As reported in The Irish Times, nearly half of the employees surveyed said that they hadn’t received any security training in the past year.
Common mistakes being made are employees plugging non-work data devices (such as USBs) into their work computers (36%) and using personal emails for work-related or customer information storage (33%).
What’s more, 24% of people working from home admitted they had accidentally shared work-related materials with friends or family.
Failing to regularly update passwords, and recycling old passwords, were two other issues the Microsoft research identified.
44% of those surveyed said that they reused passwords, while only 16% have updated their passwords in the last year. Let’s not even get into people writing their passwords down.
Des Ryan, Microsoft Ireland Solutions Director, said that this is particularly worrying because “the majority of security breaches can be traced back to compromised user identity”.
Given that 40% of businesses believe that cyber attacks are the most concerning aspect of switching to a faster 5G mobile network, research from EY recently found, now could be the time to bolster your defences and run new staff training.
CityAM reported on the EY research, noting that despite these worries, 59 per cent of businesses are either already investing in 5G or plan to do so in the next two years.
We offer support to businesses designed to increase staff cyber security awareness. To find out more about cyber security training for employees contact us today.
