Employees are three times more likely to compromise personal data than Cyber Criminals.
It’s criminals who are to blame for data breaches – surely. Nice idea, but unfortunately it’s not always the case. How savvy are you when it comes to cyber security? Can you spot a phishing email in an instant? Do you honestly change your passwords as regularly as you should?
Gemalto’s 2017 Breach Level Index Report recently revealed that it’s in fact UK employees, rather than cyber criminals, who are more likely to compromise company data. Ouch.
According to the report, nearly three out of four (72 %) breached records in 2017 were attributed to accidental breaches by employees. By contrast, cyber-attacks accounted for only 23% of compromised data. How can this be changed.
More often than not it’s the employers who haven’t been putting enough emphasis on employees’ data protection responsibilities or setting up suitable policies, security and training to minimise mistakes. Training and instilling good cyber behaviour is key.
The report highlights that the UK has significantly improved its levels of data breach prevention and damage mitigation, with a 40% decrease in the number of breached records compared to 2016. These figures far outstrip global trends, which saw an 88% increase in the number of breached records. The UK also experienced a 26% decrease in the number of incidents leading to data breaches, compared to an 11% decline in breaches globally. Things are getting better, but there is still room to do a whole lot more.
Let’s look on a wider scale. Globally, 1.9 billion – a shocking 580% more – records were accidentally compromised than in 2016. Accidental breaches included employees misconfiguring databases, losing data or disposing of it improperly. Many easy mistakes that can be avoided.
The report advises organisations to take control of data protection and invest more in security and employee training to mitigate the cost and adverse consequences of data breaches. Me Learning (melearning.co.uk ) provides a range of e-learning courses, including its highly popular Information and Cyber Security online course. 30 minutes long and priced at just £25 it provides the essentials for learning how to behave in a cyber happy manner. So what are you waiting for? Take the e-learning today and ensure your knowledge is up to scratch on the Information and Cyber Security fundamentals.
Source
- The 2017 Breach Level Index Report
