The Positive Side of the Lockdown - An Increasing Cybersecurity Awareness among Employees

During the past few months since work from home became a normal, there has been a constant rise in cyberattacks. The prime cause of this increasing hacks is the lack of awareness about cybercrimes and cybersecurity. However, companies and employees have done their best to learn the ups and downs of working from home while sharpening their knowledge about cybersecurity. In a recent survey by Trend Micro, 72 percent of remote workers said that they are more conscious of their organization’s cybersecurity policies since lockdown began, but many are breaking the rules due to limited understanding or resource constraints.

The study titled Head in the Clouds involved 13,200 remote workers across 27 countries on their attitudes towards corporate cybersecurity and IT policies. It reveals that this being a better time to heighten employee cybersecurity awareness, the approach businesses take to training is critical to ensure secure practices are being followed.

Contrary to the global number of 72 percent, India indicated a high level of security awareness, with 84 percent of respondents claiming they take instructions from their IT team seriously and 83 percent agree that cybersecurity within their organization is partly their responsibility. On the other hand, 67 percent respondents mentioned using non-work applications on a corporate device is a security risk.

Contrary to the global number of 72 percent, India indicated a high level of security awareness, with 84 percent of respondents claiming they take instructions from their IT team seriously and 83 percent agree that cybersecurity within their organization is partly their responsibility. On the other hand, 67 percent respondents mentioned using non-work applications on a corporate device is a security risk.

The time to do this is now, to take advantage of the new working environment and people's newfound recognition of the importance of information security

But understanding the risk and applying & sticking to the rules are two different things. 44 percent of the employees admitted to using non-work applications on a corporate device, and 46 percent of them have actually uploaded corporate data to their application. While 83 percent of respondents confess to using their work laptop for personal browsing, only 45 percent of them fully restrict the sites they visit. On the other hand, only 42 percent of respondents said they often or always access corporate data from a personal device, while 14 percent of respondents admit to watching/accessing porn on their work laptop and another 14 percent access the dark web.

Despite so much at stake due to increasing cyberattacks, 52 percent of the respondents agree that they do not give much thought to whether the apps they use are sanctioned by IT or not as they just want the job done. But it’s interesting to note that 44 percent think they can get away with using a non-work applications as the solutions provided by their company are ‘nonsense’.

Nilesh Jain, Vice President, Southeast Asia & India, Trend Micro, says, “It’s really heartening to see that so many people take the advice from their corporate IT team seriously, although you have to wonder about the 16 percent who don’t. At the same time those people also accept their own role in the human firewall of any organisation. The problem area seems to be translating that awareness into concrete behaviour. To reinforce this, organisations to take into account the diversity across the organisation and tailor training to identify and address these distinct behavioural groups. The time to do this is now, to take advantage of the new working environment and people’s newfound recognition of the importance of information security.”