Staff who have undergone consistent cyber security awareness training are five times more likely to spot and avoid clicking on malicious links.
That was one of the findings of the recently released Mimecast State of Email Security Report, which looked at data regarding cybercrime activity during 2021. Human error was flagged in the report as the highest concern when it came to cyber security breaches (over 90%). The survey, covering cyber threats to companies during the year, gathered information from 1400 respondents.
The human error factor included poor passwords, misuse of personal email, as well as use of collaboration tools - but the report also underlined as to whether employees were properly trained to deal with cyber threats and the importance of ongoing training in cyber awareness.
The Mimecast survey showed that companies with robust cyber awareness training strategies in place were far better prepared to resist a cyber attack.
Consistent training resulted in staff who were far more aware when it came to maintaining strong passwords, spotting unfamiliar or suspicious activity, knew they should not respond quickly to suspicious communication and how to contact the correct channel within their company for a check.
The report highlighted that:
- 96% of organisations were targeted by an email related phishing attempt in 2021
- 75% of companies had a ransomware attack, with 64% of companies paying the ransom - yet 4 out of 10 failed to recover the data
- In 2021, 88% of board members considered cyber threats as a significant business risk. This figure has risen sharply from five years ago at 58%
- 8 out of 10 respondents consider it to be likely, extremely likely, or inevitable, that their organisation will experience negative consequences in 2022 due to an email-based cyber attack
- Since the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown measures, companies have become far more reliant on email and other forms of electronic communications and collaboration tools, increasing the risks of a cyber-attack
- Cyber-attacks have become increasingly more sophisticated, according to over half of the respondents.
Other Research from DCMS
The Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) also recently released research on how cybercrime is negatively affecting UK companies, with 31% of companies reporting weekly attacks. One in four of surveyed UK companies confirmed they had experienced a cyber-attack in the last 12 months.
Security Training Solutions
With Edtesa Secure we understand the importance of cyber security awareness to avoid breaches, also citing within our Cyber Security Awareness Training (in partnership with Mimecast), that ‘human error is involved in 90% of all successful security breaches’. Edtesa Secure provides comprehensive training for staff, software protection and data protection services, allowing all staff to increase their cyber security knowledge, protecting your business at all costs.
