Miscommunication lowers firms’ cybersecurity, morale

Miscommunication between company executives and their information technology (IT) departments can lead not only to additional costs to recover from cybersecurity attacks but also to a decline in workplace morale, according to Kaspersky.

A survey conducted by the cybersecurity firm revealed that 62 percent of their top-tier manager respondents dealt with at least one cybersecurity incident in their organizations due to miscommunication with the IT security team.

This comes at a cost, Kaspersky warned, citing a Forrester analytics survey that claimed companies spend about $2.4 million to detect and resolve cybersecurity breaches.

The study also showed that the “breakdown in communication” often resulted in “serious project delays” and “waste of budget.” Almost a third of the respondents said they experienced such issues more than once.

“In addition to worsening business indicators, unclear communication with IT security employees also affects the emotional state of the team and makes executives question IT security employees’ skills and abilities,” the study said.

Some 28 percent of the respondents said the misunderstandings make them lose confidence in the safety of their companies’ cybersecurity defenses.

The gap in communication also made the several teams in the companies feel “less connected and collaborative,” according to the 34 percent of the respondents.

Kaspersky head of information security Alexey Vovk stressed that “clear communication between a company’s executives and IT security management is a prerequisite for corporate business security.”

The cybersecurity firm, as such, stressed the need for the different teams to work together in understanding each others’ roles in the company.

Both the IT and non-IT managers are also advised to gain more knowledge about each others’ fields through training courses.

“The challenge here is to put oneself in the others’ position, to anticipate and prevent serious misunderstandings,” Vovk said.

The remote work setup, a trend brought about by the pandemic, has become an opportunity for hackers to penetrate companies’ cybersecurity walls.

A recent Cisco study revealed that the majority of the Filipino employees were logging in to work using unregistered devices, which could expose organizations to cyberattacks.

“This scenario is further complicated as employees are logging into work from multiple networks across their homes, local coffee shops and even supermarkets,” Cisco added.

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