A new report from HP Wolf Security reveals that 76 percent of IT teams admit security has taken a backseat to business continuity during the pandemic, while 91 percent feel pressure to compromise security for business continuity.
It also shows that almost half (48 percent) of younger office workers (18-24 years old) surveyed view security tools as a hindrance, leading to nearly a third (31 percent) trying to bypass corporate security policies to get their work done.
Indeed, 54 percent of 18–24-year-olds are more worried about meeting deadlines than exposing their organization to a data breach, while 39 percent are unsure what their security policies say, or are unaware if their company even has them — suggesting a growing level of apathy among younger workers.
“The fact that workers are actively circumventing security should be a worry for any CISO — this is how breaches can be born,” says Ian Pratt, global head of security for personal systems at HP. “If security is too cumbersome and weighs people down, then people will find a way around it. Instead, security should fit as much as possible into existing working patterns and flows, with technology that is unobtrusive, secure-by-design and user-intuitive. Ultimately, we need to make it as easy to work securely as it is to work insecurely, and we can do this by building security into systems from the ground up.”
Among other findings 83 percent of IT teams believe the increase in home workers has created a ‘ticking time bomb’ for a corporate network breach. 80 percent of IT teams have experienced push back from users who don’t like controls being put on them at home, and 67 percent say they experience complaints about this on a weekly basis.
This is making life harder for IT teams, with 83 percent saying that trying to set and enforce corporate policies around cybersecurity is impossible now the lines between personal and professional lives are so blurred. 80 percent say IT security is becoming a ‘thankless task’ because nobody listens to them, while 69 percent say they are made to feel like the ‘bad guys’ for imposing restrictions
credit: HP Wolf Security site.
