Most workers have ‘no idea’ how to spot an email virus

EMPLOYEES who are under time pressure or not concerned about computer viruses are putting Irish businesses at risk with a cavalier attitude to emails with attachments, a leading software company said yesterday.

Novell Ireland said employers needed to do more to get their employees up to speed and appreciate the damage they could do by opening infected files or by leaving their computer systems open to hackers.

“Unless you educate workers and provide basic ‘dos and don’ts’, you may as well put a sign above your business saying ‘hackers and viruses welcome’,” said Novell Ireland sales manager Kevin McAteer.

Novell found two-thirds of employees regularly forward emails without checking if they are infected. While 67% of employees said viruses were the number one security risk, the same number said they had “no idea” how to spot a virus-infected email.

One in three employees said they did not have time to check emails before they opened them. A similar percentage unwittingly encouraged “spam“, or unwanted mail, by replying to the senders of such items.

Novell also warned that employees were poor at keeping passwords secure. 16% of respondents said they wrote their passwords down, while 10% kept their password on a note at their desk. Almost two-thirds of respondents deliberately chose passwords that were easy to remember, such as the names of partners, which are easy for potential hackers to guess.

The survey also found that people in Munster were most likely to forget their password, but that they were also more aware of virus risks than their colleagues in the rest of the country.