Accenture: 1 in 4 of Young Workers Would Click Risky Links

In a world where cyber attacks lead global news, a recent Accenture research reveals a concerning cybersecurity chasm, widening everyday as AI threats grow and thrive. 

Accenture’s State of Cybersecurity Resilience Report 2025 shows that only 36% of leaders acknowledge that AI is outpacing their security and yet, 90% of companies lack the ability to shield against AI cybersecurity threats.

Even more concerningly, one in four British employees under 35 said they would act on a suspicious message if they believed it came from a colleague or a senior leader.

The research also showed 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 shocking statistic when taken in the background of widespread cyber confidence, where four in five employees (81%) believe they can spot a phishing attempt spells a recipe for disaster. 

Kamran Ikram, Accenture’s Security lead in the UK & Ireland, says: “Recent cyber-attacks prove no organisation is untouchable and these results show a growing threat from AI-driven social engineering where attackers target trust instead of technical flaws.

“With cyber criminals weaponising information from social media to deceive people with realistic messages or calls, employees must make faster judgement calls on what’s real and what’s not. 

“The workforce feels cyber confident – though it's 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.”

Bridging the Security Maturity Gap and the AI Training Divide

The 2025 State of Cybersecurity Resilience Report by Accenture categorises organisations into specific zones namely: the reinvention-ready zone, progressing zone and the exposed zone, based on their strategy and cyber capability. 

Only 10% of organisations have achieved the status of being in the reinvention-ready zone, while 27% lay in the progressing zone and a whopping 63% landed in the most vulnerable, exposed zone. 

Being in the reinvention-ready zone would make an organisation 69% less likely to be subject of a cyberattack compared to those in the exposed zone.

The latest Accenture research also shows that more than a third of UK employees have not received any cybersecurity training. 

With only 20% trained to identify deepfakes and AI generated phishing emails, companies are exposed to cyber threats from social engineering.

As organisations rush to employ AI in their businesses, enterprise wide guidance on securely using such tools are tailing behind. 

Actions for AI Security: How companies can prepare for AI cyber threats

The report suggests four decisive actions that companies can take to be reinvention-zone ready. 

With 72% of organisations reporting increased cyber threats, the first of these would be the development of an organisation-wide security governance framework, that accounts for the realities of an AI-disrupted world.

Secondly, as AI is widely adopted by companies, they must design their digital core to be generative AI-secure, by integrating security into every layer of AI development, deployment and operation. 

The third step includes maintaining resilient AI systems with proactive, AI-specific threat management in place, which takes precedence in today’s world where AI-based cyberattacks using AI worms like Morris II are on the loose.

Fourth and final step would be to promote enterprise efforts to reinvent cybersecurity, with Gen AI to close the talent gap using AI and to hence detect threats earlier.

“Organisations must look to be resilient in every area of their operations and supply chain, which means ongoing education on cyber threats, “ Kamran says.

“Businesses can’t rely on patchy preparedness when attackers are advancing by the day.”