IT leaders think remote workers are more at risk but struggle to protect them

A new survey of enterprise IT security leaders shows almost 80 percent believe remote workers are at more risk from phishing attacks now because they're isolated from their organizations' security teams.

The study from Egress also reveals that more than 59 percent of respondents feel solutions such as video training (27 percent), email reminders (20 percent), and VPNs (12 percent), are sufficient by themselves to keep organizations safe from the biggest security breach fears: damage to brand and reputation, and legal jeopardy.

There's also a high level of confidence in staff knowledge, 81 percent of IT leaders feel their employees understand that 90 percent or more ransomware attacks originate through email phishing. Only 18 percent felt their employees didn’t know that, or didn't know if employees understood the threats caused by email phishing attacks. However, just two percent of those polled feel employees already know enough not to open suspicious-looking emails, or links they don't trust.

Despite confidence in their organizations' preparedness against sophisticated phishing threats to remote workers, 76 percent admit their organization would pay, or was likely to pay a ransom if their entire system was locked down through malware. Only 12 say their company is unlikely to pay, 7.25 percent say their employers would not pay, and five percent don't know.

There's a lack of understanding of risk too, 52 percent of those surveyed feel their organization understands which areas of the business are the most vulnerable to attacks.

"This survey has uncovered a complex situation wherein IT leaders understand threats to their remote workers have grown significantly worse, yet they feel the organization is protected well enough against them through weak solutions or in some cases, just email reminders," says Tony Pepper, CEO of Egress. "This shows that there is a lot of trust given to employees, who are suddenly shouldering the burden of not falling victim to what has become an exponentially worse threat environment."

You can read more on the Egress site.

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