Only 41 per cent of local government employees believe they're protected against cyber-crime threat

Almost half of employees indicate a low level of awareness of cyber security across local government

Only 41 per cent of local government employees believe that their current IT security practices would offer suitable protection against cyber crime, a new report has suggested.

The research, conducted on behalf of security software company Sophos by Dods Research, surveyed 2,728 local government and police workers across a wide range of disciplines. Almost half indicated a low level of awareness of cyber security and cyber crime across the general workforce.

It found that that while 62 per cent of employees said they were planning to make savings by increasing or implementing shared services, only nine per cent are looking at consolidating their IT security services.

Nearly half (46 per cent) increased awareness of data security due to high-profile security breaches and upcoming EU legislation. When asked what their main concerns were from an IT security point of view - issues around data loss (47 per cent) came out on top of the agenda, followed by remote access (31 per cent) and targeted attacks (25 per cent).

But it found that despite 59 per cent of employees highlighting the demand for more remote and mobile working practices, public sector organisations are still sceptical about turning to cloud storage - with only 16 per cent using such tools.

"This was an interesting find considering that other serious issues, such as shadow IT (11 per cent) and BYOD (18 per cent), factored extremely low on the scale of concerns, indicating that it may not be something at the forefront of local government security minds," according to Sophos.

"In contrast, however, 63 per cent of local government workers who responded agreed that encryption was becoming more of a necessity within their organisation," it added.

James Vyvyan, regional vice president of Sophos UK & Ireland, suggested that local authorities and police may be missing the opportunity to consolidate their IT and security technologies. "[This] can deliver further savings, helping to protect jobs and frontline services," he said.