Raising awareness to cyber-security: how aware are French companies?

At the 2016 FIC International Cyber-security Forum, the corporate-transformation consulting specialist, Solucom, and Conscio Technologies, a company specialised in solutions designed to raise corporate awareness to Information Security issues, will reveal the findings of their exclusive research carried out to assess the level of awareness to cyber-security in major French firms.

Conducted with a sample of 28,000 people from 12 major companies, the survey highlights the key factors requiring immediate action which must be undertaken for companies to avoid falling victim to even more cyber attacks. This comprehensive survey, the first of its kind in France, was carried out using Conscio Technologies' Information Security Awareness Meter (ISAM) solution, a technology designed to measure the level of employee awareness to computer security.

46% of employees do not know how to deal with social-engineering issues

The first thing this survey shows is the incapacity of companies to deal with social-engineering issues, such as knowing how to detect false emails (phishing), chairman scams and fraudulent phone calls, etc. 46% of employees do not know how to counter this type of attack. Social engineering is currently the key vector that enables fraudulent activity and allows undesirable entities access to corporate networks. “All employees must be aware of this security threat and, above all, know what to do. In particular, this means alerting security officials as rapidly as possible", explained Gérôme Billois, Senior Cyber-security Manager at Solucom. “Most incidents and loss of data are caused by human error. It is therefore essential to raise the awareness of employees to best practices and consider the question of security as a whole”,
added Michel Gérard, Director of Conscio Technologies.

Best password-security practices respected by 47% of employees

The second thing this survey shows is that, for many employees, creating passwords is still a complex process. 88% of respondents are aware of the need to have secure passwords (length, absence of existing words, etc.) but only 47% actually adopt these best practices in their daily routine. According to Gerôme Billois, "These figures show that despite good intentions, the only solution is to implement a technical mechanism that would oblige users to create secure passwords".

Regulatory trends; known to only 63% of employees

In addition, it would seem that many employees working in major companies know very little about personal-data protection legislation. This theme produced the lowest score, with only 63% of respondents aware of the basic data protection rules of clients and staff members. "This poses a direct legal risk for companies, particularly since regulatory trends are set to tighten with the introduction of new European legislation on personal-data protection", explained Gérôme Billois.

Raising employee awareness is key to ensuring corporate cyber-protection. While many structures are currently implementing measures to address this issue, few are equipped to be able to accurately assess the impact of their actions. "This survey however has enabled us to measure the efficiency of strategies already in place, and ensure that the next series of actions be directed at the people the most highly exposed to risk", added Michel Gérard.

Survey carried out by Solucom and Conscio Technologies in 2015 with a panel of 28,000 ISAM users in 12 major companies in France. The survey report is available on the Solucom and Conscio Technologies web sites and will be distributed at the 2016 FIC International Cyber-security Forum, to be held in Lille on 25 and 26 January.

About Solucom

Founded in 1990, Solucom is a consulting firm whose mission is to guide and champion major enterprise transformations. Solucom's approach is founded upon the belief that the key to successful corporate transformation lies in the ability to simultaneously master business, organisational and technological challenges. Solucom's clients rank among the top 200 companies and local authorities in France.

At the beginning of January 2016, Solucom merged with the European activities of Kurt Salmon (excluding the Retail and Consumer Goods activities) to create a new leader in the European consulting sector. With a combined workforce of 2,300 employees, this new entity already has offices in Paris, London, Geneva, Brussels, Luxembourg, Casablanca and New York, and strategic partnerships set up in Dubai and Singapore.

Solucom is listed on Euronext Paris and integrated in the Tech40 index. In addition, the group is eligible to benefit from the PEA-PME share-savings plan, was awarded the “Innovative Company” status by the French public investment bank, BPIFrance, and the “Great Place To Work®” status for 2015.

 

About Conscio Technologies

Conscio Technologies is specialised in raising in-house awareness to IT-security issues. In particular, the company has developed two solutions, SaaS RapidAwareness and Sensiwave.

Based on regulatory standards and in-house policies, these solutions enable companies to manage innovative online communication campaigns simply. Programmes, ranging from awareness-raising to Information security, are designed to meet the needs of organisations of all sizes and operating in all sectors of activity

Contacts

Solucom Gérôme Billois Senior Manager gerome.billois@solucom.fr +33 (0)6 10 99 00 60   KaBeCom Katia Brozek Press relations katia.brozek@kabecom.com +33 (0)1 44 92 02 26

Conscio Technologies Michel Gérard Director michel.gerard@conscio-technologies.com +33 (0)6 07 04 92 57