A quarter of UK office workers use unauthorized devices to work from home
A new study from cybersecurity and data analytics firm, CybSafe shows that one in fours UK office workers are relying on unauthorized personal devices to work from home.
The study of 600 workers also shows that one in 10 share their work devices with others in their household, and that 65 percent of workers have not received any remote working security training in the last 6 months.
Oz Alashe, CEO of CybSafe, says:
We now live in a world of borderless organizations where increasing numbers of people work remotely. Many are mobile. The lines between personal and professional are increasingly blurred. And everyone is at greater risk.
Some staff are making cyber security mistakes in their homes, and businesses will need to adjust their cyber security approaches accordingly. What may have worked in the past doesn't necessarily work now. Cyber security policy as well as awareness and behavior change programs will all require updates based on today's working conditions.
Only 37 percent of those surveyed say they had been provided with a working from home cyber security policy by the beginning of lockdown, while one in five say they don't keep their collaborative working and conferencing software, such as Zoom, up-to-date. 23 percent claim they don't ensure software on devices connected to their home WiFi network, such as work computers, is up-to-date either.
"While our latest research suggests that many UK businesses have been forthcoming with changes to cyber security strategy, these haven't taken place on the scale that we would have hoped for," says Dr John Blythe, head of behavioral science at CybSafe. "The use of personal devices amongst office workers suggests that a small but significant minority of businesses either lack a remote working cyber security policy or are failing to meaningfully deliver that message. Moreover, security awareness training covering remote working still seems to be the exception, rather than the rule."
The full report is available from the CybSafe site.
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