42 percent feel more vulnerable to cyberattacks when working at home

A new report from hardware authentication company Yubico finds 42 percent of UK employees say they feel more vulnerable to cyber threats while working from home, with 39 percent feeling unsupported by IT.

The study of over 3,000 people in the UK, France and Germany also reveals that 54 percent of all employees use the same passwords across multiple work accounts. In addition 22 percent of respondents still keep track of passwords by writing them down, including 41 percent of business owners and 32 percent of C-level executives.

Also 42 percent of respondents admit to using work-issued devices for personal reasons daily while working from home. Of these, 29 percent are using work devices for banking and shopping, and seven percent admit to watching illegal streaming services. Senior workers are among the biggest offenders too, 44 percent of business owners and 39 percent of C-level executives admit to performing personal tasks on work-issued devices every day since working from home, with almost a quarter (23 percent) of business owners and 15 percent of C-level respondents using them for illegal streaming/watching TV.

"The research shows that many organizations are still finding their feet in these new, mostly virtual, work environments, and while this flexibility can deliver new opportunities for businesses and employees, they shouldn't ignore the growing cybersecurity risks that come with it," says Stina Ehrensvärd, CEO and founder of Yubico. "Threat actors are finding new and innovative ways to breach corporate defenses which require modern security solutions like the YubiKey. In fact, a user deployment study by Google highlights the remarkable benefits and ROI for YubiKey hardware-based authentication and the standards work we have spearheaded."

While UK business owners are stricter about their personal use of work devices than their counterparts in Germany and France, UK-based employees have become more relaxed with 20 percent more of them admitting to using work-issued devices for personal tasks since working from home.

Half of French businesses require a VPN to access the corporate network, 33 percent enforce the use of stronger passwords, while 30 percent request password updates more frequently, but only 19 percent require 2FA.

Among French home workers 26 percent ignore software and operating system updates for their work-issued devices. The Germans are worse still, with only 11 percent on average keeping their work devices updated, along with a further 27 percent of home workers. Also in Germany only 35 percent say they've received cybersecurity training from their employer. This includes half of all C-level executives, but only a quarter of entry-level employees.

You can find out more in the full report available from the Yubico site.

Image credit: AndrewLozovyi/depositphotos.com