New research reveals widespread concerns are growing among US employees about escalating cybersecurity threats in the workplace.
The study from EY canvassed the opinions of 1,000 employed Americans across public and private sectors, revealing key insights for business leaders on cybersecurity awareness and practices:
- 53% worried their organization will be the target of a cyberattack.
- 34% worried that they may be the ones leaving their organization vulnerable due to their actions.
Concerns About Use Of AI In Cyberattacks
The research also analyzed employee perception of the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in escalating threats, finding:
- 85% of workers believe AI has made cybersecurity attacks more sophisticated.
- 78% are concerned about the use of AI in cyberattacks.
- 39% of employees are not confident that they know how to use AI responsibly.
The cybersecurity study highlights a persistent gap in preparedness across generations, with younger workers continuing to fall short of exercising safe cybersecurity practices more so than older generations.
Gen Z Losing Confidence
In fact, Gen Z is losing confidence in their ability to recognize phishing attempts — one of the most common and successful tactics of social engineering attacks — and is most likely to admit to opening a suspicious link. And now, with the power of AI-generated phishing emails, spotting malicious links and content is getting even harder.
- 31% of Gen Z feel very confident identifying phishing attempts.
- 72% said they have opened an unfamiliar link that seemed suspicious at work, far higher than Millennials (51%), Gen X (36%) and Baby Boomers (26%).
Nearly two-in-three Gen Z and Millennial workers are particularly fearful about repercussions surrounding cybersecurity, including 64% of Gen Z and 58% of Millennials who fear they would lose their job if they ever left their organization vulnerable to an attack. Younger generations are also more likely to not fully understand what their organization’s process is to report suspected cyberattacks, even though their organization has a process in place (39% Gen Z and 29% Millennials vs. 19% Gen X and 15% Baby Boomers).
Daily Increase In Cyberattacks
“This research shows that most US employees are worried their organization will be the target of a cyberattack and is a major wake up call for big businesses and the public sector,” commented Tim Royston-Webb, CEO, SentryBay. “The daily increase in cyberattacks proves that detection and response solutions alone are not sufficient to protect organisations from data breaches. Hackers are increasingly exploiting live account data obtained through simple phishing exploits to then undertake deeper and more sophisticated attacks on organisations. SentryBay technologies stop this threat instantly by removing the very tools exploited by hackers, screen capture and keylogging malware. Our task is clear, to make everyone aware that there is a single and simple solution to solve for this and it exists with SentryBay.”
