Working from home in Austria has shown security risks

Since the start of the new coronavirus pandemic in March last year, many Austrians have had to start working from home. However, employers often undertook only insufficient security of computer systems. According to a representative survey by the consulting company Deloitte Österreich and the research institute SORA, which was attended by 500 employees in Austria, about a third of the employees were not scanned for anti-virus programs or software updates. However, shortcomings also appeared on the part of the employees themselves, in particular their lack of awareness of possible risks. One-fifth of respondents believe that cyber threats are lower in their own homes. More than two-thirds of respondents occasionally used WhatsApp applications for job interviews. Employees often treated sensitive company data lightly, and employers neglected to adequately inform their employees. As many as 29% of respondents said that their company never informed them about security and data protection when working from home. When companies informed their employees, in 63% of cases this was done by email. Trainings were offered in 36% of cases and electronic seminars in 34%. "Due to the lack of information, there is often a gap in knowledge on the part of employees and a misjudgment of the situation," APA quoted Deloitte spokesman Alexander Ruzicka as saying. From the point of view of Deloitte manager Andreas Niederbacher, it is therefore extremely important for companies to establish and communicate "clear rules for the safe handling of work data during the home office".