Security News > 2021 > August > Organizations still rely on weak security for remote workers

A new survey of enterprise IT security leaders showed almost 80 percent believe remote workers are at more risk for phishing attacks now because they're isolated from their organizations' security teams.

Despite the significant threat increase, more than 59 percent of respondents felt solutions such as video training, email reminders, and VPNs, were sufficient solutions by themselves to keep organizations safe from what those surveyed said were the biggest security breach fears: damage to brand and reputation, and legal jeopardy.

A question about threat literacy among remote workers found that 81 percent of IT leaders felt their employees understood that 90 percent or more ransomware attacks originated through email phishing.

Steps IT leaders took over the past 12 months to mitigate the growing danger to remote workers included video training courses on how not to fall victim to a phishing attack; the deployment of anti-phishing software; regular email communications to workers to be vigilant; one-on-one training with new employees; deploying a VPN. Two percent of those polled felt employees already knew enough not to open suspicious-looking emails, or links they didn't trust.

Asked if these counter measures were sufficient to protect remote employees from phishing attacks, the overwhelming majority of IT pros-79 percent - felt they were.

Despite the confidence in their organizations' preparedness against the increase in sophisticated phishing threats to remote workers, 76 percent of IT leaders admitted their organization would pay, or was likely to pay a ransom if their entire system was locked down through malware.

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