Executives are the most at risk employees when leaving the office

Four in ten organizations in the US and Western Europe believe C-level executives are the most at risk of cyber attacks when working outside the office.

That's according to research by iPass, whose Mobile Security Report 2017 says that coffee shops and cafes are the riskiest venues (42 percent), followed by airports (30 percent), hotels (16 percent) exhibition centers (seven percent) and airplanes (four percent).

The report is based on 500 responses from organizations in the UK, US, Germany and France. More than nine in ten (93 percent) say they are worried about security, with 47 percent saying they are "very" concerned (up from 36 percent last year).

More than two thirds (68 percent) have banned employees from using public Wi-Fi "to some extent."

"The grim reality is that C-level executives are by far at the greatest risk of being hacked outside of the office. They are not your typical 9-5 office worker. They often work long hours, are rarely confined to the office, and have unrestricted access to the most sensitive company data imaginable. They represent a dangerous combination of being both highly valuable and highly available, therefore a prime target for any hacker," says Raghu Konka, vice president of engineering at iPass.

"Cafés and coffee shops are everywhere and offer both convenience and comfort for mobile workers, who flock to these venues for the free high speed internet as much as for the coffee. However, cafés invariably have lax security standards, meaning that anyone using these networks will be potentially vulnerable."

The full report can be found on this link.

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