Keeper Security and the Ponemon Institute released a study this week.  The study surveyed 1,000 IT professionals from North American and the UK.

Of the 1,000 IT professionals surveyed, 54% said that careless workers were the main cause of cybersecurity issues, followed closely by poor company password policies. 45% of IT pro’s surveyed said they had a password policy in place. 68% said they don’t enforce it anyway.

The number one cause of data breaches involving small and medium-sized businesses’? Negligent employees

More than 50% of the SMBs surveyed had experienced an attack with ransomware being the malware of choice.

What is the mode of entry to a business? Phishing attacks.

79% of business hit with ransomware,  the entry point was through a phishing email or another social engineering attack. The email enters your employees inbox. The bad guys are getting very good at sounding legit. I don’t think that your employees have any intent to harm your business. They are just unaware of what to look for.

Of those company’s that were hit once…..53% of them were hit again within the same year.

You may have staff that uses mobile devices for business. These devices usually have access to sensitive information.

Your employees need to be trained on how to protect your company. The least expensive and most effective way to protect your company is to educate your employees.

Knowing is Key