KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Blog

Clueless: 64% of Working Adults Don’t Know What Ransomware Is

Written by Stu Sjouwerman | Oct 11, 2018 8:48:40 PM

Ransomware is one of the new scourges of the net and every IT pro is fighting to protect users from attacks. However, a new study shows that the majority of working adults don’t know what ransomware is.

Our friends at Proofpoint’s Wombat Security division have published their 2018 User Risk Report, which surveyed 6,000 working adults. The study was conducted in the US, UK, Australia, Italy, France, and Germany. Participants were tested on their knowledge of cyber-security and if they know end-user actions to protect data and systems.

A whopping 64% is clueless

The results show 64 percent of respondents do not know what ransomware is. Participants were asked about their understanding on phishing, Wi-Fi security, social media, passwords, and more. Basic understanding of cybersecurity seems to be lacking in the working public. 32 percent said they did not completely understand what malware is.

In other areas, it was a mixed bag of results. 67 percent know about phishing and what it is, but only 33 percent of people use a password manager. Furthermore, 21 percent admit to using the same password across all their accounts.

Wireless networks are an avenue for attack, but 44 percent say they have no password protecting their home network. 66 percent did not change the default password provided by the router.

YIKES!

In times like this you really need to step your users through new-school security awareness training. 

Find out how affordable this is for your organization. Get a quote now.