"Home Working Parents and Young Adults Are Most Risky IT Users"

During new research conducted by researchers at HP Inc., they surveyed 8443 adults and 1100 IT decision-makers.  The researchers found that young adults and parents of young children could be inviting cyber-threats by using work devices for risky personal tasks.  Most (71%) of employees surveyed are accessing more company data more frequently from home than they did pre-pandemic, with over three-quarters (76%) admitting that working-from-home (WFH) has blurred the lines between their personal and professional lives.  While a third (33%) of respondents are now downloading more to their devices from the internet, the figure rises to 60% for those aged 18-24-years-old. The researchers stated that this age group is more likely (60%) to watch online streaming services than the average (36%).  In addition, over two-fifths (43%) of parents of children aged 5-16-years-old admitted to using work devices to play more games today than pre-pandemic. Over half (57%) of this group are also likely to use their work device for homework and online learning, versus an average of 40%.  The researchers stated that this matters because threat actors are increasingly looking to target these behaviors. The research also revealed a significant number of home workers are using potentially insecure personal devices for work to access corporate applications (37%) and networks/servers (32%).  Over half (51%) of IT decision-makers have seen evidence of compromised personal PCs being used to access company and customer data over the past year.

Infosecurity reports: "Home Working Parents and Young Adults Are Most Risky IT Users"