What percentage of your employees know how to properly handle sensitive information? The answer is “probably a lot less than you think.”

In a recent survey conducted by MediaPro, it was discovered that nearly 90% of employees lacked security and privacy awareness. Only 12% of respondents knew how to properly identify and dispose of information safely and could recognize phishing attacks and malware when confronted by them.

72% of respondents had such a basic level of security awareness that they were classed as “novice” and nearly one in five (16%) knew so little about basic digital security that they were deemed to be an organizational risk.

Some of the most disturbing specific findings included the facts that:
• More than a quarter of respondents could not identify suspicious looking email attachments and “from” addresses
• 30% said it was okay to post on behalf of the company from their personal social media accounts
• And 26% said they thought it was fine to use a personal USB drive to transfer files from company servers to work on at home.

These findings are about as bad as it gets. No matter how much money you spend on state of the art security, with numbers like these, it’s no wonder we’re seeing so many high profile data breaches. Your employees are far and away the weakest link in any security system you put in place.

Unfortunately, this is mostly a management failing. Employee education where digital security is concerned is spotty at best, and as this survey painfully underscores, represents the single biggest opportunity for improvement.

If you’re concerned about the state of digital security at your company and want to improve it, contact us today and one of our knowledgeable team members will be happy to work with you to see how we might be of assistance.