Cybersecurity best practice? No thanks, we're British

New research to coincide with Cybersecurity Awareness Month finds that 34 percent of Brits admit that they have given up following cybersecurity best practice because it feels like an impossible task.

The study from Thales surveyed over 2,000 UK citizens and finds an alarming level of consumer apathy when it comes to keeping themselves safe online.

In addition, 51 percent of respondents say they struggle to grasp rapid advancements in technology and the implications on their own personal security. 22 percent admit that they had no clue about the significance of where in the world their data is stored and 20 percent aren't concerned.

Chris Harris, EMEA technical director, Thales says:

The problem isn't necessarily an awareness issue, in fact there's almost too much awareness of how to keep yourself safe that the public are feeling overwhelmed. This fatigue is causing cyber best practice to wane. However, companies need to take this into consideration and factor into how they communicate with customers around how to keep their data safe.

While industry-specific terms like 'digital sovereignty', 'data compliance', and 'third-party cookies' may be commonplace within the IT industry, they tend to alienate the broader consumer population. Consequently, a crucial question arises: how can individuals protect themselves from threats they don't understand? This conundrum is pertinent this Cyber Security Awareness Month, and should force businesses to rethink how to best foster a safer digital environment.

This lack of awareness is also causing Brits to willingly sign away their data. Nearly half (47 percent) of respondents confess to accepting terms and conditions without a thorough reading, further exacerbating the potential risks to their own data privacy.

Alarmingly, 57 percent of participants voice a suspicion that companies intentionally use convoluted language within their terms and conditions to obscure the extent to which individuals inadvertently give up their personal data.

There's apathy around cookies too, with 56 percent admitting that they always accept cookies on websites due to ease -- highlighting that user experience tends to trump security. Just over two fifths (44 percent) currently use multi-factor authentication across all their online accounts despite this being one of the easiest ways to protect your identity online.

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