The last year (fast approaching two) has tested companies unlike anything had before. As it turns out, IT teams have had an incredibly difficult time maintaining security with workforces scattered to the wind.
On Thursday HP released its HP Wolf Security Rebellions & Rejections report and it is a very concerning read.
“The findings show that IT teams have been forced into compromising security for business continuity at a time of rising threats. Making matters worse, their attempts to increase or update security measures for remote workers have often been rejected. This is particularly true for the future workforce of 18-24-year-olds – digital natives who feel increasingly frustrated with security getting in the way of deadlines, leading many to circumvent controls,” HP said in a press release sent to Hypertext.
The study drew on survey responses garnered online via YouGov. As many as 8 443 office workers who were working from home during the pandemic. In addition, 1 100 IT decision makers were surveyed by Toluna and their responses where included in this report.
While 76 percent of IT teams admitted that security had taken a backseat, the more concerning stat is that 91 percent of IT teams felt pressure to compromise security in favour of business continuity.
The reason for this was revealed later in the survey. HP found that 48 percent of younger office workers (ages 18 – 24) viewed security as a hinderance and 31 percent had tried to bypass security policies in order to get their work done.
“The fact that workers are actively circumventing security should be a worry for any CISO – this is how breaches can be born,” said Ian Pratt, global head of security for personal systems at HP.
“If security is too cumbersome and weighs people down, then people will find a way around it. Instead, security should fit as much as possible into existing working patterns and flows, with technology that is unobtrusive, secure-by-design and user-intuitive,” added Pratt.
Of course, we are not blind to the fact that the pandemic up-ended the best laid plans of businesses and even the most robust security systems had to adapt to a new way of working.
Indeed, the report reveals that 91 percent of IT teams did adapt and implemented security solutions that accounted for those working from home.
But even then, employees continued to find that security solutions caused friction.
“80 percent of IT teams experienced push back from users who do not like controls being put on them at home; 67 percent of IT teams said they experience complaints about this weekly,” reads the report.
This has lead to 80 percent of IT teams saying they believe their job is thankless and nobody listens to them.
“To create a more collaborative security culture, we must engage and educate employees on the growing cybersecurity risks, while IT teams need to better understand how security impacts workflows and productivity. From here, security needs to be re-evaluated based on the needs of both the business and the hybrid worker,” says Joanna Burkley, Chief Information Officer at HP.
You can find the full HP Wolf Security Rebellions & Rejections report here.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
