Only 41% of Pakistani professionals trained against cyber threats: Kaspersky survey

ISLAMABAD: A recent Kaspersky survey in the Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa (META) region entitled “Cybersecurity in the workplace: Employee knowledge and behavior”, found that just 41% of professionals in Pakistan received a training on digital threats.

This knowledge gap is significant, especially given that the majority of cybersecurity breaches are attributed to human error. The findings underscore a need for IT departments to provide clear guidance and for organizations to implement structured, practical cybersecurity training that reaches employees at every level.

Many cyberattacks today are deliberately designed to bypass digital defenses by exploiting human psychology. “Social engineering” schemes, like phishing emails, manipulate trust and urgency to trick employees into sharing sensitive information or initiating fraudulent transactions. 68.5% of surveyed professionals encountered scams disguised as messages from their organization, colleagues, or suppliers within the past year, while 40% suffered negative consequences after such deceptive communication.

Other cybersecurity issues closely linked to the human factor include compromised passwords, the leakage of sensitive data, unpatched IT systems and applications, and unlocked and unencrypted devices.

Human-related cyberattacks can be prevented through appropriate education and awareness. 51,5% of respondents acknowledged they made IT-related mistakes due to a lack of cybersecurity knowledge.

At the same time, training was named as the most effective means of raising cybersecurity awareness among non-IT employees: 32% of professionals chose it over other options, such as threat stories (32%) and references to legal responsibility (36%). These findings show that cybersecurity training is an essential layer of organizational defense.

When allowed to choose specific training topics, 36% respondents prioritized mobile device security, security of accounts and passwords (34.8%), protecting confidential work data (31.3%), e-mail security (31.3%), website and internet security (30.8%), safe use of social networks and messengers (27.3%), secure remote work (25.8%), and the safe use of neural network–based services such as chatbots (25.5%).

While 19.8% of respondents said they would prefer to undergo all the above trainings, this highlights a broad demand for comprehensive cybersecurity education.

When organizations invest in such education, they are not just meeting a requirement, but also fostering a “security-first” mindset among the workforce.

“Cybersecurity can’t live solely within the IT department. Everyone—from executives to new hires—needs a clear grasp of digital risks. A truly resilient organization is built by equipping every employee with the skills to recognize scams, prevent costly errors, and safeguard company data,” comments Rashed Al Momani, General Manager for the Middle East and Pakistan at Kaspersky.

To strengthen their defences, organizations should consider implementing robust monitoring and cybersecurity solutions, for example, from the Kaspersky Next product line.

Introduce employee education and cybersecurity trainings, such as Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform, developed to help IT and HR departments deliver practical cybersecurity skills to employees.

Encourage employees to report suspicious activity, and reward proactive security behaviors to reinforce good habits.