Computer security vendor Websense released a research titled "Websense E-mail Security" on May 21, 2008 that revealed that employees in the UK were too complacent about the security of their e-mail. It showed that nearly 31% of respondents were satisfied even though their company did not fully protect their e-mail, as they believed that they would not be targeted in cyber attacks.
The security investigators at Websense also indicated that according to 35% of respondents, they wouldn't be subjected to a hacker's attack on their computer through e-mail to gain unauthorized access to their data. On the other hand, 72% of respondents were indifferent to spam mails, as according to them, getting e-mails from strangers is a mere annoyance and not a security threat.
Meanwhile, according to Websense, UK employees are opening their corporate and private data to e-mail-based security risks in the manner in which they handle spam. About 40% of respondents use the preview option to read spam mails while 33% open e-mail from strangers before determining how to deal with them and 22% open spam mails and even click the links embedded in them.
Although damage caused to organizations' confidential data continues to be a matter of concern more than the danger of an incident of hack, 40% of those questioned still thought that this didn't pose a threat to them. Nevertheless, when employees accessed personal e-mails during work hours, 42% of those questioned knew there was no protection for them from attacks launched through Webmail.
Director of Product Management Ross Paul at Websense said that modern security attacks are becoming more stealthy and targeted, with cyber miscreants using a number of attack methods and multiple channels to gain entry into a company network and steal corporate as well as private data. SecurityProPortal published Paul's statement on May 21, 2008.
The study thus suggests that there is a shortfall of knowledge amongst the UK workers about the security of their e-mail. With the largely sophisticated e-mail threats, companies that have not ensured that their employees adopted proper security practices are putting their corporate data as well as employees' private information at risk.
