As Enterprises Push to Speed Innovation, Employees Feel Pressure to Take Security Risks

As companies push innovation, their digital infrastructure is getting more complex. Organizations use an average of 1,061 different applications to juggle business functions. This complexity is taking a toll on employees: 90% report feeling information overload at work as a result of digital innovation, while 87% say they struggle to keep pace with rapid change, according to Pega’s 2022 Workforce Trends Report. The increasingly frenetic nature of work is causing many employees to cut corners in the race toward deadlines.

Tired and overworked employees can be just as dangerous to companies as outdated cybersecurity tools. Ponemon found that 62% of cyberattacks attributed to insiders are due to negligence rather than malicious intent, and according to the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report, 74% of all breaches—whether a result of phishing, malware or stolen credentials—include the human element. 

Cybercriminals are adept at exploiting these vulnerabilities, targeting employees and the tools and devices they use to get work done fast. 

Phishing represents one of the most effective methods of attack: In 2021, 84% of companies experienced a successful email-based phishing attack in which an employee was tricked into a risky action, according to Verizon. Phishing is also the second most expensive, averaging $4.76 million per breach, according to IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report.

One reason employees are still falling victim to phishing attacks is that they wrongly assume their employer’s security measures are robust enough to protect them. In a recent Proofpoint study, 49% of respondents said they thought their organization’s safety measures would prevent any dangerous emails getting into their inbox. But a recent Forrester report found that at 69% of organizations, more than half of devices are unmanaged, limiting IT teams’ ability to provide protection. 

As companies move more of their processes to the web, bad actors are following suit. According to Verizon, over 60% of breaches hit companies via hacking from Web applications—more than any other access point. 

Chrome Enterprise guards organizations against lapses in security—and judgment—by folding personal devices into the broader corporate security network. By providing security at the browser level and leveraging AI and ML to block malware transfers and prevent users from uploading sensitive corporate data, Chrome Enterprise proactively prevents employees from accidentally compromising their company.

“Chrome Enterprise protects businesses by protecting the users. We have built-in security in the browser to keep a user safe from going to malicious sites, or downloading malicious things,” says Lauren Miskelly, Managing Director at Chrome Enterprise.

As businesses continue to innovate, they must minimize the complexity of their digital ecosystem—for security’s sake. Chrome Enterprise helps IT teams secure the growing number of applications in their organization’s tech stack through integrations that give security teams control over a wider network. 

Leveraging partnerships with a range of providers, like Splunk, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, Chrome provides the ability for IT teams to streamline browser data across security tools. 

With more securities in place across more web applications, employees are better protected while they work, even at high speed—no matter how complex their company’s cloud environment becomes. 

“The stakes are high, because everything moves so fast with technology, and tech leaders need to be thinking a few steps ahead of their users,” says Miskelly. “But when it comes to innovation and security, I don’t think it’s an ‘either/or,’ I think it’s an ‘and.’ Chrome Enterprise actually allows people to use more innovative tools, because they know the security features are built-in.”