One in five IT workers doesn't know what a cyberattack is

A survey of over 1,000 IT workers, carried out by technology services provider Probrand reveals that more than one in five (21 percent) don't actually know what constitutes a 'cyberattack'.

Used as a catch-all term, cyberattack can cover everything from a simple phishing email, right across to a large-scale server attack, however, many IT workers have never seen, or don't understand, what the real detail of an attack actually looks like.

Almost half (43 percent) of those surveyed admit to being unaware of how to defend their company from a cyberattack, with one in three (32 percent) relying on external agencies for crisis support.

"The term, 'cyberattack' is firmly set in business vocabulary, and rightly so as cyber threats present the greatest risk of crisis to most organizations," Matt Royle, marketing director at Probrand says. "However, it is worrying to discover many do not know the details of what a threat looks like, so have little chance of protecting themselves from it."

In addition the study finds that only just over one in ten (12 percent) of respondents say they know what their company's business continuity plan fully constitutes.

"Where no IT team exists, business leaders are exposed to threats without knowledge of how to protect themselves. Where IT teams do exist, managers are hampered by end user issues, lack of budget or time to truly focus on IT strategy, which includes security," adds Royle. "Business leaders need to take another look at prioritizing investment in people, technology and employee training to combat cyber security and protect the continuity of their business."

You can find out more on the Probrand site.

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