Prior to its participation in the Black Hat Cyber Security Conference that will be held from November 15-17, 2022 in Riyadh, Cisco revealed the results of its latest security survey of customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The survey, which included participants from all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, revealed interesting trends about device security amid a significant acceleration in digital transformation throughout the Kingdom.
The Cisco User Security Survey in Saudi Arabia showed that 73% of respondents are concerned about their connected devices being hacked or cyber-attacked. Cisco security experts warn that not paying attention to cyber security at home and on personal devices will lead to dire consequences.
Summary of survey results:
- 54% of survey respondents said that cybercrime targeting businesses made them realize that their personal data is more vulnerable now than it was 12 months ago. However, 69% of them use their personal phones to manage work tasks and 61% of them use unsecured public internet networks to perform basic work tasks.
- 29% of survey respondents do not use or do not know MFA multi-factor authentication
It was commented (Fadi Younes); Head of Cybersecurity, Cisco Middle East and Africa and Service Providers Division EMEA: “The Cisco KSA Survey has given us insight into the general behaviors and security approaches of the hybrid workplace. With the pandemic accelerating the spread of the hybrid business model and facilitating remote access to business data, many issues have emerged that users need to be aware of, as we have noticed that insider threats are becoming an increasingly common part of the chain of cyber attacks. Even the smallest data leaks can have significant negative impacts on the electronic safety of individuals.”
He added: “The line between work and home is becoming blurred today, as we see the application of habits used in personal activities when performing work tasks is becoming more and more a threat to companies. Although companies cannot completely eliminate the factor of human error, they are able to mitigate it. So it has to keep data securely in the cloud and allow access to it via Zero Trust methods and align access to that data according to needs.
and individual contexts.
Use of personal devices in the performance of work tasks:
With the spread of hybrid work and intense cyber threats, the survey was conducted with the aim of understanding behaviors in dealing with cybersecurity at home. The results in the Kingdom revealed a huge number of people who frequently use their personal devices to perform work tasks, which came as follows:
- 67% of survey respondents use their personal devices to send work emails.
- 66% of them use their personal devices to make business calls frequently.
- Only 35% of survey respondents indicated that they have never talked about work tasks or worked on work documents through their personal devices.
The majority of more than 1,006 respondents surveyed in the Kingdom indicated that they own three or more connected devices and share at least one connected device with someone else in the home.
Amid the global escalation of cybercrime at all levels, respondents seemed to be concerned about these threats, as 73% of them indicated that they were concerned about the penetration of their personal devices. As more connected devices are being shared in the home, 72% of them have updated their passwords in the past six months, the highest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Risk is not just a factor in the home, with many people now working in public places or logging in to work assignments on the go. Many people's always-on mentality means that they take risks when choosing to connect over public and untrusted networks. Whereas, 56% of respondents in the Kingdom frequently use public networks to perform personal tasks, and 61% of them use them to perform basic business tasks.
Misunderstanding of security procedures?
Usernames and passwords have never been an effective way to avoid cyber threats before, so adding multi-factor authentication to accounts is a very simple way to add an extra powerful layer of protection for accessing information.
However, 29% of the survey respondents from the Kingdom do not use or do not know what multi-factor authentication is.
And since nearly every smartphone has fingerprint or facial recognition technology, consumers are choosing to use biometrics instead of passwords to open and log into apps on their personal devices. Companies have an opportunity to take advantage of this technology that employees already have to drive adoption of strong multi-factor authentication at work.
A gap in learning the basics of cybersecurity?
A major challenge in bridging gaps in cybersecurity is to educate millions of people in a consistent manner. When respondents were asked where to go for advice on internet and hardware security behaviors, the answers were mostly that 50% of them turn to friends and family, and 48% turn to social media.
Personal advice and opinions about cybersecurity can lead to a failure to take the right preventative measures. It may seem to the average person that it is unlikely that their home WiFi network will be hacked or that their data may be stolen while using a public network. However, it only takes one window of opportunity and a very short time window to gain access to the information that cybercriminals need to collect.
Survey Methodology
The EMEA Consumer Security Survey included responses from more than 8,000 respondents from eight countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, of whom 1,006 users were surveyed in Saudi Arabia during August 2022.
51% of respondents in that period were working full time, 16% part time, and the rest of the respondents were either unemployed, students, housewives, or had their own business. Regardless of employment status, more than half of the survey respondents said that cybercrime targeting businesses made them aware that their personal data was now more vulnerable than they were.
It was 12 months ago.
This survey was conducted by market research firm Census Wide in August 2022.
Cisco at Black Hat MEA Cyber Security Conference:
Cisco is the strategic sponsor of the Black Hat Middle East and Africa Conference (Black Hat MEA), which is supported by the Saudi Federation for Cyber Security and Programming (SAFCSP). At its stand, Cisco will display the latest innovations in its security solutions portfolio. As part of Cisco's program of events at the conference, Lothar Rayner, General Manager, Cyber Security, Cisco EMEA, will present Cisco's vision for enhancing security resilience through Zero Trust approaches.