A significant number of employees are reluctant to frequently update their work devices, according to the findings of a study commissioned by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky to explore workers’ attitudes and habits toward updates.

According to the report, 57 per cent of respondents stated that they are less concerned about updating their work devices than personal devices, suggesting that keeping work devices up to date is an insignificant consideration.

Furthermore, 52 per cent of employees have previously had a dispute with IT staff about the importance or frequency of updating their work devices.

Of the employees that have had such arguments, the IT teams tend to agree with such demands and let almost (84 per cent) of staff skip installing updates on certain software or OS at all.

Updates are important in terms of new functionality and bug fixes. Most of all, updates help address various security vulnerabilities.

“And once a security update is released, malefactors know about these issues. That is why patch management is essential for corporate security However, some staff members are reluctant to update their work devices, meaning that there are vulnerable computers, laptops and smartphones in the corporate network,” the report said.

Respondents who argued with IT about updates were asked two questions – whether they were allowed to skip updates (84 per cent said they were) or whether they were allowed to choose what to update (the same 78 per cent chose this option).

Employees stated an impact on productivity as a reason to take up these options. More than half of respondents are actually distracted from work because of updates, as per the report. Additionally, 30 per cent take a break from what they were doing and 9 per cent of employees in India just wait patiently at their desk. 54 per cent of employees agree that learning new versions of software is a waste of time that could be spent doing their job.

“We recommend employees regularly update their devices – it will not only keep them protected, but each update takes just a few minutes. This short downtime can be used to recharge body and mind without any harm to business processes,” said Elena Molchanova, Head of Business Development, Kaspersky Security Awareness Trainings.

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