Younger employees more likely to have unsafe cybersecurity habits

A new report into hidden threats from Ivanti finds that one in three employees believe their actions do not impact their organization's security.

The research also shows that Millennial and Gen Z office workers are more likely to have unsafe cybersecurity habits when compared to Gen X and older (those above 40 years of age).

Of those office workers under 40 surveyed, 38 percent use the same passwords on multiple devices, compared to 28 percent of those over 40. In addition 34 percent share work device(s) with family or friends (19 percent), 34 percent use a birthdate in their password (19 percent), and 13 percent clicked on a phishing link when targeted (eight percent).

Gender, seniority and region can also impact the collective strength of the enterprise's security. The report finds that men and leaders are more comfortable contacting a security employee with a question or concern -- with leaders at an organization the most likely to reach out with a question at 72 percent. It also shows that there are regional variations in cybersecurity training and attitudes with 54 percent of employees in China and 43 percent in France reporting that their organizations don't provide mandatory cybersecurity training. That number drops to 17 percent for the UK, 30 percent in the US and 22 percent in Germany.

"Employees don't always understand that they're valuable members of the extended security team despite organizations best attempts to train and educate," says Daniel Spicer, chief security officer at Ivanti. "There is also a dangerous assumption that since younger office workers are generally more tech savvy, they are also more security conscious. Security leaders need to enable all employees to play defense against threat actors and proactively build an open and welcoming security culture."

The full report is available from the Ivanti site.

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