Employees download malware every four seconds

A new pair of studies reveals that employees are downloading unknown malware at a staggering rate.

The Check Point 2016 Security Report and the SANS 2016 Threat Landscape Study revealed “critical challenges” facing businesses, Check Point wrote in an emailed press statement.

The Check Point report saw the company analyse the activity of 31 000 Check Point “gateways” around the world. The SANS study, on the other hand, saw 300 IT security professionals being surveyed.

“Researchers found a 9x increase in the amount of unknown malware plaguing businesses. This was fuelled by the employees — who downloaded a new unknown malware every four seconds. In total, there were nearly 12 million new malware variants discovered every month, with more new malware discovered in the past two years than in the previous decade,” Check Point noted.

One in five employees caused a malware breach via a mobile device

“With billions of new connections formed every minute, the world is more globally linked than ever. Innovations like cloud, mobility and IoT are changing the way we deploy, the way we consume, and the way we secure technology,” said Doros Hadjizenonos, Country Manager of Check Point South Africa, in the press statement.

“More and more malware is being put into our ecosystem that traditional security techniques are powerless to prevent. Given this, staying a leader requires being one step ahead of things you cannot see, know or control — and preventing attacks before they happen.”

Check Point also noted that mobile devices presented a blessing and a curse, saying that one in five employees would cause a network breach via their smartphone or tablet.

Featured image: Christiaan Colen via Flickr