Majority of UK workers blindly open email attachments

Come on, people. We’re almost halfway through 2017, and you’re still opening shady email attachments? Glasswall Solutions seems to think so. As a matter of fact, its new report says UK workers are "too trusting" of email attachments.

More than half, 58 percent, "blindly" open email attachments from unknown sources. Three quarters, 75 percent, recognize how often they get shady emails. Just 16 percent thinks they should be worried about a cyber-attack.

More than two thirds (69 percent) fear data theft, while 41 percent are afraid of losing a network, or a system. Only a quarter (24 percent) is afraid of being attacked by ransomware.

One in five says their business has no policy on how to handle email attachments, and 58 percent say they’d like "innovative technological protection."

Speaking about the report, Glasswall Solutions CEO Greg Sim, said new solutions are necessary for businesses to protect themselves.

"Employees need to trust their emails to get on with their work, but with 94 percent of targeted cyber-attacks now beginning with malicious code hidden in an email attachment, the security of major businesses should no longer be the responsibility of individual office-workers," he says.

"Conventional anti-virus and sandboxing solutions are no longer effective and relying on the vigilance of employees clearly leaves a business open to devastating cyber-attacks that will siphon off precious data or hold the business to ransom."

More than half (58 percent) would feel safer if their employers had the right tech to protect them.

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