The 7 “Deadly” Sins of Corporate Users According to IT Administrators

Visits to adult websites, unsecured USB drives, streaming, and other activities threaten the corporate networks of Czech and Slovak businesses

PRAGUE, April 3, 2019 – GFI Software, a provider of security solutions for corporate networks, stated that according to its latest survey conducted among Czech and Slovak resellers, IT administrators face a highly diverse range of security challenges when managing corporate networks. Based on respondents’ answers, the company identified the so-called 7 “deadly” sins of corporate users that most frequently threaten the security and functionality of IT environments in Czech and Slovak SMBs.

In general, respondents consider non-work-related online activities, the use of removable storage media for work purposes, unupdated computers, and careless email behavior to be the greatest threats to corporate networks. IT administrators see the main obstacles to improvement in the corporate management’s underestimation of IT security issues (89%), the high costs of acquiring and operating technical tools (52%), and the lack of user training on current risks (35%).

IT administrators rank the following among the seven most common user mistakes:

1. Visiting risky websites – 77% of IT administrators consider visits to adult websites to be the riskiest user activity within corporate web access.
2. Using unauthorized USB drives– For 83% of respondents, USB flash drives pose the greatest danger among all removable media, while 42% cite smartphone storage.
3. Losing or accidentally deleting important emails– Restoring user emails is the most common issue handled by 32% of IT professionals.
4. Browsing during working hours– 33% of administrators believe that private browsing leads to a loss of employee productivity. 
5. Ignoring prompts for softwareupdates– 24% of respondents report inconsistent updating of work computers. 
6. Streaming or downloading music and videos– According to 39% of administrators, users download or stream media files on the network, contributing to bandwidth congestion and slowing down critical applications. 
7. Carelessly opening email attachments– The greatest number of IT administrators—87%—are concerned about users’ lax behavior with email.

 “IT administrators are under increasing pressure to ensure maximum IT security at the most efficient cost, yet the risks continue to become more diverse,” said Zdeněk Bínek, responsible for sales of GFI Software solutions in the Czech and Slovak markets. “The number of careless user actions that can ultimately be ‘deadly’ for a corporate network is only increasing. Corporate IT managers and multi-tenant service providers are therefore looking for licensing models and solutions that enable efficient, centralized cybersecurity management of the entire infrastructure.”  

GFI Software offers a suite of solutions to protect against most attack vectors, based on the GFI Unlimited licensing model, which enables comprehensive centralized protection of corporate IT under a single subscription, supplemented by Exinda products designed to optimize the performance of enterprise applications.