"54% of Staff Would Reconsider Working for a Firm That Had Experienced a Cyber Breach, Research Finds"
According to researchers at Encore, over half (54%) of office workers would reconsider working for a company that had recently experienced a cyber breach. The researchers surveyed 100 C-level executives, 100 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), and 500 office workers in the US and the UK to uncover the gap that remains between boards and security teams when it comes to addressing cyber demands. The researchers noted that only a third (33%) of staff said they would be "completely unphased" if their employer suffered a cyberattack. The majority (57%) of C-level executives polled said they have been breached in the last 12 months alone. Most office workers, however, were unaware, with only 39% believing their organization had been the victim of a successful attack. The researchers stated that almost half (41%) of C-level executives polled named reputational damage as one of the most significant costs to their business following a cyberattack, with 34% agreeing that loss of clientele or their trust was a significant cost. The researchers noted that despite many admitting to suffering a cyber breach in the last year, the overwhelming majority (92%) of CISOs and C-level executives polled believe their business is secure at any given moment. The researchers stated that there is a very real problem of security feeding a false sense of confidence. The researchers noted that too often, we see C-level executives treat their security investments as a sure way of securing their business against persistent and motivated attackers. The researchers stated that security or being "Cybersafe" is not something you can measure at a single point in time. It needs to be an ongoing effort.