Fraud professionals understand that the weak link in data security and antifraud efforts is usually humans, who are highly susceptible to the social engineering and phishing attempts that provide bad actors with the raw material for account takeover and other attacks. A recent report highlights, however, that it’s not just laypeople who are vulnerable to these kinds of attempts—security and fraud professionals fall victim as well.
AwareGO, a company that provides human cyber risk awareness solutions, found in its Human Risk Assessment Survey that while 90 percent of security professionals said they would be able to recognize a phishing email, only 30 percent indicated they would report it.
“The survey really hits home in confirming that individuals of all levels can benefit from ongoing security awareness training,” said Ragnar Sigurdsson, head of R&D and co-founder of AwareGO. “We all must stay vigilant and security aware of risks such as passwords and phishing schemes that can disrupt our business and put our organizations at risk every day.”
Overall, survey participants earned a 70/100 resilience score across assessed threat areas. On the subject of password strength, when asked to type in their password to verify its strength, 50 percent did enter a password. According to Sigurdsson, it was a trick question—experts should know to never offer their password at all.