• Tech News
    • Games
    • Pc & Laptop
    • Mobile Tech
    • Ar & Vr
    • Security
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
What's Hot

How To Create An Engaging Investor Pitch Deck

February 5, 2023

Plant-based chicken startup Rebellyous Foods raises $9.5M to launch latest production tech – Startup

February 4, 2023

Startup T2 Wants to Terminate Twitter

February 4, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest VKontakte
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
  • Tech News
    1. Games
    2. Pc & Laptop
    3. Mobile Tech
    4. Ar & Vr
    5. Security
    6. View All

    Bring Elden Ring to the table with the upcoming board game adaptation

    September 19, 2022

    ONI: Road to be the Mightiest Oni reveals its opening movie

    September 19, 2022

    GTA 6 images and footage allegedly leak

    September 19, 2022

    Wild west adventure Card Cowboy turns cards into weird and silly stories

    September 18, 2022

    7 Reasons Why You Should Study PHP Programming Language

    October 19, 2022

    Logitech MX Master 3S and MX Keys Combo for Business Gen 2 Review

    October 9, 2022

    Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen10 Review

    September 18, 2022

    Lenovo IdeaPad 5i Chromebook, 16-inch+120Hz

    September 3, 2022

    YouTube adds very convenient iPhone homescreen widgets

    October 15, 2022

    Google finishes iOS 16 Lock Screen widgets rollout w/ Maps

    October 14, 2022

    Is Apple actually turning iMessage into AIM or is this sketchy redesign rumor for laughs?

    October 14, 2022

    Samsung’s One UI 5 update is largely about personalization

    October 14, 2022

    MeetKai launches AI-powered metaverse, starting with a billboard in Times Square

    August 10, 2022

    The DeanBeat: RP1 simulates putting 4,000 people together in a single metaverse plaza

    August 10, 2022

    Improving the customer experience with virtual and augmented reality

    August 10, 2022

    Why the metaverse won’t fall to Clubhouse’s fate

    August 10, 2022

    How Apple privacy changes have forced social media marketing to evolve

    October 16, 2022

    Microsoft Patch Tuesday October Fixed 85 Vulnerabilities – Latest Hacking News

    October 16, 2022

    Decentralization and KYC compliance: Critical concepts in sovereign policy

    October 15, 2022

    What Thoma Bravo’s latest acquisition reveals about identity management

    October 14, 2022

    What is a Service Robot? The vision of an intelligent service application is possible.

    November 7, 2022

    Tom Brady just chucked another Microsoft Surface tablet

    September 18, 2022

    The best AIO coolers for your PC in 2022

    September 18, 2022

    YC’s Michael Seibel clarifies some misconceptions about the accelerator • DailyTech

    September 18, 2022
  • Startup
    • Fintech
  • Reviews
  • How To
Behind The ScreenBehind The Screen
Home»Security»Ignorance isn’t bliss: How tech users lack fundamental cybersecurity knowledge
Security

Ignorance isn’t bliss: How tech users lack fundamental cybersecurity knowledge

September 29, 2022No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Ignorance isn't bliss: How tech users lack fundamental cybersecurity knowledge
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.


Not surprisingly, internet connectivity is at an all-time high. 

But — also not surprisingly — this has led to a rise in cyberattacks: Phishing and identity theft are prevalent (yet, under-reported).

And, adoption of best practices continues to lag as nearly two-thirds of tech users lack access to basic cybersecurity knowledge. 

These are the key findings of the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) and CybSafe Oh Behave! The Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors Report 2022. The report, which polled 3,000 people across the U.S., U.K. and Canada, was released today ahead of NCA’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October. 

Event

MetaBeat 2022

MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders to give guidance on how metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 4 in San Francisco, CA.

Register Here

“Cyberattacks have grown in frequency especially over the last few years, with the pandemic accelerating and forever changing the attack surface against consumers and businesses,” said Lisa Plaggemier, NCA executive director. “However, bad actors continue to successfully claim victims via low-tech (but still effective) methodologies.”

Clean up your passwords

One of the most troubling findings: Weak password hygiene. 

Although 45% of respondents said they are always online, just 16% reported that they create passwords more than 12 characters long. Similarly, 40% don’t use strong password combinations, and only 7% use a password manager.

Also, more than a third (37%) of respondents preferred to write passwords in a notebook, 28% store them electronically and 22% “just remember them.”

See also  Chrome for iOS is freezing for many users w/ latest updates

“It’s alarming because each of these methodologies for password hygiene have massive weaknesses that can ultimately cause passwords to fall into the wrong hands,” said Plaggemier. 

Also according to the report: 

  • 43% of respondents had never heard of multifactor authentication (MFA).
  • 37% do not have automatic software updates enabled.
  • 35% presumed that their devices are automatically secure.

Simply put, technology users don’t like passwords and struggle overall with “sensible security hygiene,” said Plaggemier. 

To defend themselves and their employees, companies should use a combination of MFA, zero-trust policies and good password hygiene. This means mandating the use of passphrases that are at least 12 characters long. Users must create and maintain unique, multicharacter-sequence passwords for the ever-increasing number of online accounts they log into.

“Regardless of length, if passwords are predictable or lack a differentiation of characters, bad actors have a significantly greater chance of compromising or brute-forcing their way into a respective user’s account,” said Plaggemier. 

Phishing and identity theft the most prevalent attacks

Out of more than 1,700 incidents of cybercrime disclosed by participants, 36% were phishing attacks that led to a loss of money or data and 24% were identity theft. The report also found that:

  • Participants in the U.S. were consistently more likely to have been victims of cybercrime.
  • 20% of Millennials and 18% of Gen Z had their identity stolen at least once.
  • 27% of Millennials and 34% of Gen Z had lost money/data due to harmful cyber activity such as phishing. 
  • By contrast, 92% of Baby Boomers reported never having their identity stolen, and 88% had never lost money/data due to cyberattacks.
See also  Google to turn on 2FA by default for 150 million users, 2 million YouTubers

Meanwhile, 45% of romance-scam victims and 48% of cyberbullying victims did not report incidents. And, 26% of identity theft victims and 31% of phishing victims did not report their incidents directly to service providers or law enforcement.

“Phishing attacks are extremely prevalent and, unfortunately, successful,” said Plaggemier. 

Thus, it is essential that tech users know how to spot and report phishing attacks. If a link or attachment looks suspicious, scroll past it or delete/mark it as spam or junk mail. And, be wary of communications that ask for immediate action.

“Monitoring for these types of phishing scams will help users and companies avoid clicking on links with malware that can damage your device, and worse, give cybercriminals access to them,” said Plaggemier. 

Basic cybersecurity knowledge is lacking

Basic cybersecurity awareness and adoption of tools is also cause for concern. The study found that: 

  • 62% of users lack access to cybersecurity knowledge, and one-third rely on the help of friends and family.
  • 78% of respondents consider staying secure online a priority.
  • 57% were worried about cybercrime. 
  • 46% felt frustrated while staying secure online.

These findings are endemic to the way cybersecurity training is viewed, said Plaggemier. The onset of the pandemic and the blurring of personal and professional lives is “a major wake-up call,” she said. Access was prioritized over security.

“Businesses that put security on the backburner to give people remote access quickly, watched as bad actors took advantage of people’s general ignorance surrounding the dangers they faced by being connected all the time,” she said. 

See also  Nubank adds Adrian Cockcroft as tech advisor

“Now we must course-correct and make fundamental safeguards like MFA and training-as-a-culture more of a necessity than a luxury,” said Plaggemier. 

A call to action

There is a culture shift — which needs to be accelerated, said Plaggemier — as organizations increasingly fall victim to phishing and social engineering attacks. 

It’s paramount that cybersecurity training become “entrenched in digital culture” and emphasized as a proactive and beneficial must-have rather than a punitive and reactive response. 

The key to increasing education and adoption of cybersecurity best practices is to implement cybersafe requirements. Ultimately, tech companies should be prioritizing cybersecurity over fear of backlash from user friction and implementation, she said. 

“Our study tells us that people want to prioritize security and they expect tech companies to do more,” said Plaggemier. 

Instead of making MFA optional and framing it as a “just in case” deterrence measure, it should be “table stakes” for all devices that carry and store critical information, she said. This may seem a burden at first, but the amount of data risk it could minimize down the line is worth the initial growing pains. 

“Practitioners need to move past the framing of training as punitive and instead create an environment where cybersecurity awareness and education is cultural,” said Plaggemier. 

Ultimately, it should be embedded into our workplaces and our daily lives, she said. 

“If we can change the messaging and make it easier for the average person to understand deterrence, we can collectively become safer and better prevent cyberattacks from proliferating.”

Source link

bliss Cybersecurity Fundamental Ignorance isnt knowledge lack Tech Users
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Plant-based chicken startup Rebellyous Foods raises $9.5M to launch latest production tech – Startup

February 4, 2023

Here’s how VCs are advising founders and assessing startups amid the tech downturn – Startup

February 3, 2023

Big Tech Is Really Bad at Firing People

January 30, 2023

Tech layoffs at big companies could be a boon for startups and entrepreneurship – Startup

January 29, 2023
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Editors Picks

Hurricane Ian Destroyed Their Homes. Algorithms Sent Them Money

October 10, 2022

Tesla increases FSD beta cost to $15,000 in North America – DailyTech

August 22, 2022

Starting A DEI Consulting Firm For His Second Act

January 30, 2023

SNK announce a new Fatal Fury game

August 8, 2022

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest news and Updates from Behind The Scene about Tech, Startup and more.

Top Post

How To Create An Engaging Investor Pitch Deck

Plant-based chicken startup Rebellyous Foods raises $9.5M to launch latest production tech – Startup

Startup T2 Wants to Terminate Twitter

Behind The Screen
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest Vimeo YouTube
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
© 2023 behindthescreen.uk - All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.