Distractions means 36 percent of tech workers only do the bare minimum for security at work

In a year of international events that has been dubbed a 'permacrisis', 46 percent of tech industry workers say that distractions from world events make it hard to care about their jobs.

More worrying is that 36 percent of tech industry workers say they only do the bare minimum when it comes to security at work -- compared to 11 percent of employees in other industries.

A survey of 2,000 North American workers from 1Password shows that overall 79 percent feel distracted on a typical work day, with one in three employees (32 percent) saying they're the most stressed they've ever been in their lives. In the tech sector 39 percent say their co-workers are less productive at work because they're distracted by world events -- nearly twice the level of workers in other industries.

Top distractions cited include the COVID-19 pandemic (44 percent), recession/inflation (42 percent), economic uncertainty (38 percent), fuel prices (34 percent), and personal relationships (29 percent).

"Every crisis creates an opportunity for criminals to exploit victims via social engineering as they take advantage of psychological weaknesses. Many of the traditional human vulnerabilities are at greater risk in a time of permacrisis; curiosity, the power of authority figures, manufactured urgency, greed and other weaknesses will continue to be used to the attackers' advantage," says Troy Hunt, strategic advisor at 1Password and founder of Have I Been Pwned. "As the level of sophistication increases, even the most tech-savvy of us can fall victim to a well-crafted attack, and it's our job in the industry to build more resilient systems and tools."

There are some positives when it comes to cybersecurity, 76 percent say they are aware their individual actions have an impact on their company's overall security, and 82 percent would care if they caused a security breach. In addition 89 percent now use authentication products or services such as two-factor or multi-factor authentication, biometrics, password managers and single sign-on.

However, the report also highlights an interesting misconception that if security is too easy, it's not as safe. Employees are three times as likely to trust two-factor or multi-factor authentication as they are to trust single sign-on (65 percent compared to 19 percent).

You can get the full report from the 1Password site.

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