Men twice as likely as women to express confidence in spotting threats

In a year that’s seen numerous high-profile cyberattacks, new data from Accenture suggests that men feel twice as confident as women at detecting a digital threat. This is despite limited training across a workforce, as over a third of UK workers have never received any professional education on cyber security.

There are almost no limits to the talents of some men. Or at least, their perception of their talents. Polls have previously found that close to half of all men believe they could replicate the end of a number of hair-brained blockbusters, and land a commercial aeroplane if called upon – despite a lack of the relevant training. One in five men think they could beat a chimpanzee, or a king cobra in a fight, while only 8-12% of women feel the same way. That gap in perception even played out when it came to a grizzly bear – which 7% of men (compared to 6% of women) thought they would be able to tackle, one-on-one.

In that context, you probably won’t receive any prizes for guessing who have the highest estimations of their abilities to combat hackers in the workplace. Overall, 81% of British workers feel “confident” about spotting a phishing attempt or AI-driven cyber threat – even though more than a third have never received cybersecurity training. But once again, this over-confidence is most prominent among men.

According to analysis of YouGov figures by Accenture, men were nearly twice as likely as women to say they are “very confident” in spotting a digital fraudster. That translated as 22% of men, and 12% of women. But while their cyber-confidence is sky-high, the analysts found that this did not translate into greater caution or change in workplace behaviour.

Training gap

Examining the activities of more than 1,000 British employees, Accenture still found that 15% would share company data or make payments via messaging apps, without verifying the sender, if the message seemed to come from a leader or colleague. This rose to 24% of under-35s, suggesting that Millennial and Gen Z employees who use consumer messaging apps, like WhatsApp, to contact colleagues could be vulnerable to scams.

Kamran Ikram, Accenture’s security lead in the UK & Ireland, said, “The workforce feels cyber confident – though its uneven among men and women – there remains a serious skills and training gap across the board. Being overconfident yet undertrained is a dangerous position to be in.”

Illustrating this gap, Accenture found that 37% of UK workers have never received cybersecurity training, rising to 44% of over-55s. Only 20% of employees have meanwhile been trained to recognise deepfakes or AI-generated phishing emails, while 79% of microbusinesses with fewer than 10 employees offered no cybersecurity training at all – prompting concerns about cyber risks among smaller vendors in the supply chain.

Ikram added, “Organisations must look to be resilient in every area of their operations and supply chain, which means ongoing education on cyber threats. Businesses can’t rely on patchy preparedness when attackers are advancing by the day.”