Britain is a sitting duck for cybercrime because employees couldn’t care less about the security of their workplace systems, suggests new research* announced today from tokenless authentication provider, Swivel Secure.
The study reveals: Almost a fifth (19%) of employees reuse the same username and password (UNP) across upwards of 25 different sites.
Three quarters of all respondents (77%) remained completely unconcerned about workplace security, suggesting that only a direct and personal experience of cybercrime will trigger a change in attitude.
Three quarters (75%) either write down or have another offline system for recording their passwords.
“This has been going on for long enough,” comments Chris Russell, VP Engineering at Swivel Secure. “The cloud’s over reliance on the username and password format has caused workers to resign themselves to the risks, and made the UK economy a sitting duck for corporate cybercrime. The inconvenient truth is that workers are neither capable nor are they willing to maintain the complex, rolling system of passwords that today’s web environment demands.
“Analysts tell us that global spending on cyber security will exceed $68bln this year, but it is nonsensical for a business to invest heavily in firewalls, encryption and all manner of other protective technologies if its workers are effectively lowering the drawbridge to anyone that can guess their Facebook password,” continues Russell. “As our personal and professional worlds continue to collide online, businesses that are serious about protecting their data need to rethink their approach to user authentication and drop usernames and passwords for good.”
The Swivel authentication platform was first launched in 2003. It is now used by local government, the NHS, major global enterprises and smaller businesses in over 35 countries, to remotely access their business networks, virtual desktops and cloud-based applications. A strong alternative to UNPs, the Swivel authentication platform offers the widest range of user deployment options according to Gartner, including mobile apps, SMS and interactive voice response channels.
Read the full press release by Swivel Secure, or speak to Net-Ctrl directly about the Swivel Secure solution on 01473 281 211, or email [email protected].