Annual Market Pulse Survey finds almost half of respondents in Australia duplicate passwords across work and personal accounts, and 12% would consider selling their workplace passwords to a third party
The results of the 10th Annual Market Pulse Survey from SailPoint Technologies has exposed an alarming trend: despite an increased focus on cybersecurity awareness in the workplace, employees’ poor cybersecurity habits are getting worse, compounded by the speed and complexity of digital transformation. In Australia, four in five respondents admitted to reusing passwords across accounts (compared to the global average of 75%). Worryingly, 12% of Australian respondents would consider selling their workplace password to a third party, with 9% willing to sell their password for less than AU$5,000.
For more key findings, view the infographic, Balancing Efficiency and Security in Today’s Enterprises.
Organisations are at varying stages of digital transformation, and that evolution has presented an increasingly complex IT environment to manage securely. Yet this year’s Market Pulse Survey findings points to a workforce who are less committed to security best practices. This has not only introduced more risk, but also a sense of frustration between the IT team trying to secure and enable the business and users who want to work more efficiently. Over half (57%) of Australian respondents stated their IT department can be a source of inconvenience in their organisation. This leads to employees skirting IT policies, such as the 24% who admitted that they have deployed software without IT’s help (i.e. ‘shadow IT’).
Efforts to get around IT may not necessarily be done with malicious intent, but the reality is they directly increase IT risk for the organisation. For example, more than one in 10 Australian employees admitted they would not immediately notify their IT department if they thought they had been hacked. Further compounding this issue is a workforce that tends not to understand the role of all employees in keeping an organisation secure, as 41% of respondents would actually blame the IT department for a cyberattack if one occurred as a result of an employee being hacked.
However, it’s not just today’s employees exposing organisations to risk. As digital transformation blurs the traditional security perimeter with cloud apps, it is also redefining the definition of a “user”. Enterprises are increasingly adopting software bots powered by robotic process automation (RPA), and granting them access to mission-critical applications and data, like their human counterparts. Two in five Australian respondents are currently using or planning to use chatbots and artificial intelligence personal assistants, compared to the global average of 48%.
“To secure and enable today’s modern workforce, the users have become the new ‘security perimeter’ and their digital identities are the common link across an organisation’s IT ecosystem at every stage of its digital transformation,” said Juliette Rizkallah, CMO, SailPoint. “By taking an identity-centric approach to security, IT can gain full visibility and control into which applications and data users, including both human and non-human bots, are accessing to do their jobs. This approach allows enterprises of all sizes to confidently address the tension between enablement and security exposed in our Market Pulse Survey.”
2018 Market Pulse Survey Methodology
For the 2018 Market Pulse Survey, SailPoint commissioned independent research firm Vanson Bourne to interview 1,600 employees at organisations with at least 1,000 employees across Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Download your copy of the report here.
SailPoint: The Power of Identity™
SailPoint, the leader in enterprise identity governance, brings the Power of Identity to customers around the world. SailPoint’s open identity platform gives organizations the power to enter new markets, scale their workforces, embrace new technologies, innovate faster and compete on a global basis. As both an industry pioneer and market leader in identity governance, SailPoint delivers security, operational efficiency and compliance to enterprises with complex IT environments. SailPoint’s customers are among the world’s largest companies in a wide range of industries, including: 7 of the top 15 banks, 4 of the top 6 healthcare insurance and managed care providers, 9 of the top 15 property and casualty insurance providers, 5 of the top 13 pharmaceutical companies, and 11 of the largest 15 federal agencies.
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