Once again, hybrid workers have been held responsible for cybersecurity issues, despite the fact that most business owners are finding it more difficult to defend against cyber-threats than they did before the pandemic.

According to a recent survey by endpoint management company Tanium, human error is the “main cause” of preventable security incidents.

Precisely, phishing email recipients who interact with the malicious content by opening the links or downloading the attachments.

Accidents that could have been avoided

Tanium found that 54% of respondents have had employees interact with malicious content sent via email, making it the most common facilitator of cyberattacks. About two-thirds of government agencies found that this was the root cause of security breaches that could have been prevented. More than two-thirds of company bosses also believe that hybrid employees make it harder to fend off danger.

Security misconfiguration, which includes things like poor password hygiene or employees failing to protect sensitive data with any form of credentials, is the second most avoidable incident, at 50%.

Tanium argues that the situation would improve greatly if these businesses had adequate resources. Among the top three most common preventable events, 47% can be attributed to insufficient cybersecurity measures. It went on to say that some businesses still weren’t utilising even the most basic cybersecurity measures. Of those surveyed, only 19% said they used web vulnerability scanning, 17% said they used penetration testing software, and 11% said they had used packet sniffers for at least five years.

Most businesses today are preparing for the future by boosting their threat detection and endpoint security spending. Nearly half (49%) will concentrate on threat detection in 2019, while 46% will prioritise endpoint protection. The third-highest planned investment is in data recovery and backup tools (45%).