When presented with an opportunity, people who never even planned to attack your organization may turn into a severe cybersecurity threat. Forget to block a dismissed employee from accessing your system and they may steal or alter your critical data. Grant a third-party contractor excessive access to your infrastructure and they may cause a serious data breach. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure you don’t give insiders an opportunity to turn malicious.

If you are an IT manager looking for information to present to your bosses to emphasize the need for an effective cybersecurity training program, new data from a 2021 research study might be just what you need.

Vigilant companies continuously review risks and their cybersecurity postures. They deploy active defense-in-depth measures and utilize the latest malware detection and mitigation techniques. However, there is one type of vulnerability that tends to fall through the cracks—insider threats. That’s because IT organizations often believe it’s management’s problem to address, while managers believe IT groups have insider threats under control.

The pandemic hastened long-developing trends toward digitization and decentralization. As virus concerns, social distancing guidelines and convenience pushed people online, ecommerce sales surged, expected to hit $4.2 billion globally this year, jumping ahead by years in the process. To be sure, this isn’t a one-time trend. According to one survey , nearly half of shoppers who altered their shopping habits in 2020 plan to make those changes permanent.

As businesses emerge from the pandemic, many are making strategic decisions about their long-term work arrangements. While there is a substantial debate about remaining remote or bringing people back to the office, many companies are choosing to meet in the middle, embracing a hybrid work arrangement that allows people to work both on-site and remotely.