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CybersecurityManagementSecurity NewswireSecurity Leadership and ManagementLogical SecuritySecurity & Business ResilienceCybersecurity News

Nearly half of employees have been asked to aid ransomware attacks

By Madeline Lauver
Employee on laptop
November 15, 2021

A survey of 100 North American security executives found that 48% of business employees and leaders have been approached by cybercriminals to assist a ransomware attack.

In a new report, Hitachi ID and Pulse detail the steps enterprise organizations have completed when it comes to cybersecurity, including zero trust, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and identity management system implementation. The survey also collected data on security leaders' top of mind cybersecurity concerns.

Cybersecurity strategy across the surveyed executives highlighted a focus on access management, with 82% of businesses having implemented MFA, single sign-on (80%) and identity access management (74%). Just under half (47%) of executives reported that their business had implemented zero trust policies. In addition to these digital security solutions, over two-thirds of executives indicated that they had increased cybersecurity awareness training for their employees in the past year.

The increase in training may connect to another statistic presented in the report, which found that 48% of business team members have been approached to assist a ransomware attack. This insider risk can present a challenge to security leaders. Seventy-six percent of security leaders indicated that they are concerned about government-backed cyberattacks affecting their organization. Opinion is split when it comes to whether the U.S. government is taking enough action to stop government-backed attacks, with 38% agreeing that they are, 47% stating that the government is not acting sufficiently, and 15% unsure about their stance.

Find more information from the report here.

KEYWORDS: cyber attack response cyber criminal cyber security leadership insider risk multi-factor authentication ransomware survey zero trust

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Madeline Lauver is a former Editor in Chief at Security magazine. Within her role at Security, Lauver focused on news articles, web exclusives, features and several departments for Security’s monthly digital edition, as well as managing social media and multimedia content.

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