Data from SpyCloud reveals that Fortune 1000 employees have middling to poor cybersecurity practices, which could in turn threaten the businesses that they work for.
For starters, I genuinely couldn’t care less for one of the top Fortune companies to get raided by cybercriminals. Who knows, maybe we’ll luck out and one of them will be an insurance company, with its records getting wiped clean a la Fight Club or Mr. Robot. However, back to reality we must trudge, and discuss what it is that these employees are missing out on. Let’s be honest, not many individuals across the world have great cybersecurity practices. Our passwords repeat across platforms, they’re simplistic enough to remember and can be brute forced through with relative ease, not many of us have active anti-viruses or VPNs running amok on our desktops and other devices. Honestly, while I’d advice at least having a password manager handy, I understand that daily toils are hard and tiresome enough that no one guns for active security unless they really, really need it. However, I’m going to go out on a limb and wager that the Fortune 1000, the wealthiest companies in the world, might want to consider investing in the habit.
Data revealed that Fortune 1000 employees had an average 64% password reuse rate, and many of these were easy to guess passwords that either tied in to personal life details or work related discourse. And yes, while I do think it’s funny to keep your password chetssuckymassages because of Chet and how he’s such a creep around the other female employees, I’d also suggest either taking it up with HR or at least adding a few dollar signs, with capitalizations to boot. Of course, Fortune 1000 employees aren’t a monolith: only their rich, uncaring overlords are. Some companies are bound to have better practices than others, and this research doesn’t reflect on all of them equally.
Whatever the case may be, however, exposure to threats is accelerating rapidly with every passing month. SpyCloud ties over 600 million cybersecurity breaches to the companies on the Fortune 1000, which are troubling statistics for customers. Ultimately, I do feel that some amount of the blame lies on upper-level management. Spend some money on password managers or VPNs, enforce some semblance of rules and regulations. The money may or may not keep coming in, but the more corporations ignore such breaches and employee negligence, the more other people get affected.
Read next: Security Experts Are Starting to Get Overwhelmed by Cyber Attacks According to This Report
For starters, I genuinely couldn’t care less for one of the top Fortune companies to get raided by cybercriminals. Who knows, maybe we’ll luck out and one of them will be an insurance company, with its records getting wiped clean a la Fight Club or Mr. Robot. However, back to reality we must trudge, and discuss what it is that these employees are missing out on. Let’s be honest, not many individuals across the world have great cybersecurity practices. Our passwords repeat across platforms, they’re simplistic enough to remember and can be brute forced through with relative ease, not many of us have active anti-viruses or VPNs running amok on our desktops and other devices. Honestly, while I’d advice at least having a password manager handy, I understand that daily toils are hard and tiresome enough that no one guns for active security unless they really, really need it. However, I’m going to go out on a limb and wager that the Fortune 1000, the wealthiest companies in the world, might want to consider investing in the habit.
Data revealed that Fortune 1000 employees had an average 64% password reuse rate, and many of these were easy to guess passwords that either tied in to personal life details or work related discourse. And yes, while I do think it’s funny to keep your password chetssuckymassages because of Chet and how he’s such a creep around the other female employees, I’d also suggest either taking it up with HR or at least adding a few dollar signs, with capitalizations to boot. Of course, Fortune 1000 employees aren’t a monolith: only their rich, uncaring overlords are. Some companies are bound to have better practices than others, and this research doesn’t reflect on all of them equally.
Whatever the case may be, however, exposure to threats is accelerating rapidly with every passing month. SpyCloud ties over 600 million cybersecurity breaches to the companies on the Fortune 1000, which are troubling statistics for customers. Ultimately, I do feel that some amount of the blame lies on upper-level management. Spend some money on password managers or VPNs, enforce some semblance of rules and regulations. The money may or may not keep coming in, but the more corporations ignore such breaches and employee negligence, the more other people get affected.
Read next: Security Experts Are Starting to Get Overwhelmed by Cyber Attacks According to This Report
