Press release: Over a quarter of organisations does not take measures to raise awareness about cybercrime

Press release: Over a quarter of organisations does not take measures to raise awareness about cybercrime

06-02-2018 09:17:01
bewustwording-cybercrime-safer-internet-day.jpg

On Safer Internet Day we found out that no less than 27 percent of organisations has not taken measures to make employees aware of cybercrime. This lack of measures comes with serious risks. This is one of the results from a study by BIT, specialist in green colocation, internet connections, managed hosting and outsourcing, among more than 1.000 Dutch people with office jobs. It seems that 14 percent of the employees in the workplace clicks on links in emails from unknown senders. Almost a quarter (22%) indicates that this has caused a work computer or laptop to get infected with a virus. 12 percent has no idea whether it had consequences or not. Next to clicking on links in emails from unknown senders, one in ten employees says to have opened files attached to such emails. 26 percent indicates that this has led to a virus on their computer and 15 percent is unsure whether it had consequences or not. The results of the study have been bundled in the report ‘Internet Eigenwijs 2017’.


Measures taken

Of the organisations that did take measures to create awareness about the dangers of the internet among their employees, 43 percent has set up security measures in a policy and explained this to their employees. According to 34 percent of the employees, the security risks have been documented and explained and in 19 percent of the businesses there are special meetings about the security risks. In addition, almost a third of the employees says that internet use is constantly and anonymously monitored and that they are approached when risky behaviour is detected. 

Wido Potters, Manager Support & Sales at BIT: ‘With the increasing cybercrime it is worrying that so little organisations bother with creating awareness among and providing guidance for their employees. Our study shows that this poses real dangers. The advice is that the IT department should take the next step inform and convince both employees and management of the dangers and consequences of unsafe internet behaviour. Awareness among employees is the basis for reducing cybercrime in the workplace and guaranteeing an open, safe and free internet.’

Want to learn more about the results? Download the report ‘Internet Eigenwijs 2017’ here: https://www.bit.nl/bit-onderzoeksrapport-2017