A recent survey conducted by Censuswide on behalf of KnowBe4, a provider of security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, finds that the UK workforce is ill-prepared to face today’s expanding cybersecurity threat landscape. Of a thousand recently furloughed employees, 41% admitted that their company had never offered them a security awareness training course, while 14% have gone as far as to say that their employer has not taken security seriously enough.
While a quarter (25%) of organisations did implement added security measures such as multifactor authentication in the last six months, much still remains to be done; particularly, when it comes to reinforcing the human firewall. Of those who did receive training, 29% of respondents conceded that it had been at least six months or more since the last training course. This is concerning as 42% of respondents chose to sort through their emails quickly upon return to work in an effort to get back to business as usual; therefore, increasing the likelihood of an individual falling victim to a phishing attack.
Javvad Malik, Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4. “Bad actors often look to leverage the fear and uncertainty of today’s circumstances to trick unsuspecting individuals. As such, it is pivotal that an organisation’s security strategy includes on-going security awareness training.”
