Sobering statistics on risky employee practices

Most employees don’t set out to cause a security breach, but they may not fully appreciate the impact of some of their actions.

Check out these statistics from CyberArk, a major player in the "identity management" sector of cybersecurity, coming from a survey of 14,000 employees across the UK, USA, France, Germany, and Australia. Beyond the headline, some sobering stats include:

• 36% of respondents re-use the same passwords in the workplace that they use in their personal lives

  
  

• 35% use external personal storage services to store and share workplace-related information with external parties

  
  

• 30% share workplace-related passwords and credential logins with co-workers.

  
  

• 34% lost a personal device and 25% lost a work device

  
  

• 40% habitually download customer data

  
  

• 42% have been bombarded with so many authentication requests (including MFA confirmations) in a short space of time that they just click “accept”

  
  

• 36% admit to not immediately installing security patches or software updates on their devices

If you’re not completely sure why any of the above behaviours create security risks for your business, then I’d be happy to discuss. I can also provide tailored advice on a range of measures you could and should put in place to control these risks.

Article: More than 60% of Australian employees admit to bypassing cybersecurity policies to make their lives easier

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