Generation Zs (born after 2000) and millennials (the generation before) are featured in the October 2020 print edition of Professional Security magazine, in terms of what they expect from an employer – including prompt and helpful crisis communications in an incident, whether about office closure in the pandemic or in the aftermath of an act of terrorism.
Millennials are engaging in dangerous online activity, according to a study by the cyber firm McAfee of time spent online by consumers. A majority, some 60 per cent, of 16 to 24 year olds are claiming to have been scammed online.
Online criminals have been targeting unsuspecting consumers across all generations using a diverse range of tactics seeking personal and financial information; and the young are the most frequent users of the internet. The research has suggested that baby boomers are in fact more diligent at avoiding scams, with six in ten having never fallen victim to a scam and/or hack.
As for online criminals’ methods, they have been targeting popular online activities such as shopping (46pc) streaming (16pc) and banking (15pc). Gen Zs are twice as likely to fall victim to an online banking scam in comparison with those aged over 55. In contrast, over half (47pc) of 55-65 year-olds who claim to have been scammed were targeted via email, suggesting how online criminals are sticking to more traditional methods to reach older generations.
As the cyber firm says, the risks associated with a hacker gaining access to social media accounts can come down to how much personal information is being shared on the platform; in a word, over-sharing, done most by millennials, such as share location on social media.
Comment
Raj Samani, Chief Scientist and McAfee Fellow, pictured, says businesses must share responsibility for protecting employees from scams at home. He says: “The pandemic has completely changed how we live, from the way we socialise to the way we work. With many of us spending far more time online from home, criminals have been quick to adapt their tactics – creating a whole host of new scams which businesses must be more aware of given the large numbers of staff still working remotely. The threat for businesses is also intensified by the fact that many employees are accessing work files and information from home across both corporate and personal devices.
“With many businesses moving to cloud-based collaboration to enable the almost overnight shift to remote working, organisations must recognise that securing data in the cloud is a shared responsibility that doesn’t fall solely on end-users. All stakeholders, from cloud service providers to businesses to the end-users themselves, have a role to play in this layered defence. By taking this collaborative approach, companies can rest easy knowing they are taking a critical step in meeting today’s complex security challenges.
“So, while businesses must educate their workforce on best practice such as reporting any suspicious activity, questioning whether a link is dodgy or thinking before accepting a stranger’s invitation to connect on LinkedIn, there is also an onus on the business themselves to build vital cybersecurity hygiene into all of their processes. Taking a shared responsibility approach to cloud and data security will help to ensure remote workers can be productive without compromising corporate information.”
