Employee Lockdown Stress May Spark Cybersecurity Risk

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Stressed-out employees in a remote-working world could be a major contributor to poor cybersecurity postures for companies, according to a survey.
 
Forcepoint polled 2,000 office workers in Germany and the U.K., to better understand cybersecurity practices among remote workers. Among other findings, the survey found that younger employees as well as people caring for children or other family members reported more stress in their lives, as well riskier IT behaviors when compared to other demographics.
 
For instance, 67 percent of employees under 30 said they use shadow IT (unsanctioned apps, services and equipment) to help them to perform certain tasks more easily, compared to 27 percent of older workers.
 
Also, 55 percent of the younger group reported making more mistakes when working from home, such as copying in the wrong people into emails – in comparison, only 17 percent of the over-30s reported such mistakes. And, nearly two-thirds of the younger group (63 percent) stated that distractions while working from home negatively impact decision-making, compared to 26 percent of older people.
 
It’s unclear if the relationship between security behavior and stress is causal, but it’s still a correlation that leaps off the page, according to Forcepoint.

“Differences in behaviors may in part reflect natural age-related tendencies in risk-taking, but the level of disparity between the two groups is both consistent and extreme,” said Margaret Cunningham, principal research scientist at Forcepoint, in a Thursday posting on the findings. “This could indicate that natural risk-taking tendencies are exacerbated by prolonged periods of stress and a challenging work climate.”

Read more: Employee Lockdown Stress May Spark Cybersecurity Risk | Threatpost