Employees lack fundamental security awareness

Many executives are concerned about their employees' level of cyber risk awareness, with a new survey showing that 70 percent believe their employees lack critical cybersecurity knowledge, up from 56 percent in 2023.

The study, of 1,850 executives across 29 countries, from Fortinet also shows that over 60 percent of respondents expect more employees to fall victim to attacks in which cybercriminals use AI.

However, the good news is that most respondents (80 percent) also say enterprise-wide knowledge of AI-augmented attacks has made their organizations more open to implementing security awareness and training.

Three-quarters of leaders say they plan their security awareness campaigns in advance, delivering content on a monthly (34 percent) or quarterly (47 percent) basis. Executives also point to high-quality content playing a leading role in the success or failure of the program.

John Maddison, chief marketing officer at Fortinet says, "As threat actors harness new technologies like AI to augment the sophistication of their attacks, it's increasingly crucial that employees serve as a robust first line of defense. Fortinet’s new research underscores the importance of creating a culture of cybersecurity and the need to deploy organization-wide security awareness and training. These findings reinforce the importance of our award-winning Security Awareness and Training service for enterprises, including the free educational version available at no cost to primary and secondary schools around the world, and its role in strengthening cyber resilience."

The report shows that end users remain attractive targets. More than 80 percent of organizations faced attacks last year such as malware, phishing, and password attacks that directly targeted individuals. 98 percent of respondents say phishing prevention is a component of their training programs and plans. Other top training priorities include data security (48 percent) and data privacy (41 percent).

You can get the full report on the Fortinet site and find out more about the company's free security training program.

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