Two-fifths of firms have sacked staff for cybersecurity breaches during Covid, poll shows

Almost two-fifths of business decision-makers (39 per cent) have dismissed employees because of a cybersecurity policy breach since the pandemic began, a survey has found.

The research, conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Centrify, polled 200 UK business decision-makers and found more than half (58 per cent) of firms believed that working from home made employees more likely to circumvent security protocols – including through the use of personal laptops and failing to change passwords.

To combat poor employee security practices, more than half (55 per cent) of those surveyed had banned, or planned to ban, staff from using personal devices to work from home.

Meanwhile, 57 per cent were implementing more measures to securely authenticate employees, including biometric data checks such as fingerprint and facial recognition technology, and multi-factor authentication steps to access certain files, applications and accounts.

The poll found that almost two-thirds (65 per cent) had made substantial changes to their cybersecurity policies in response to breaches and to Covid-19.

Commenting on the findings, Kirsty Rogers, employment partner at DWF, said it was imperative employers revisited their data security protocols in light of widespread home working.

Source: People Management

Read the Full Story Here