New Cyber Trust Index Reveals More than Half of Employees Skip Verification Despite Rising AI Impersonation Risks
Employee trust in digital communications is growing significantly during an era of indistinguishable deepfakes while verification remains inconsistent for sensitive requests involving money, credentials, and confidential information, according to a new global survey announced today by WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader in unified cybersecurity for managed service providers (MSPs) and small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).
The report, “The Cyber Trust Gap: When Familiarity Is Not Enough in the AI Era,” commissioned by WatchGuard, surveyed more than 500 full-time employees across eight countries. It found that 46% trust digital communications more than they did five years ago, compared with 31% who trust them less. Further complicating matters is the fact that 55% of respondents said they don’t always independently verify the sender before acting on sensitive requests. With AI enabling convincing imitations of familiar voices, faces, and writing, this gap leaves organisations more exposed to impersonation, fraud and cyberattacks.
“The most striking finding isn’t that employees trust digital communications,” said Corey Nachreiner, Chief Information Security Officer at Watchguard. “It’s that many continue to trust the same signals they’ve relied on for years, even as AI makes those signals easier to imitate. Familiar names, voices, faces, and brands have always helped people make quick decisions, but they’re no longer reliable indicators of authenticity. Verification is becoming one of the most important cybersecurity skills employees can have.”
As outlined in the report, familiarity carries considerable weight in engendering employee trust. The survey revealed:
- 72% of employees have clicked a link or opened an attachment because it appeared to come from someone they knew.
- 38% said a known sender makes digital request seem trustworthy
- 36% said a familiar workplace or personal detail makes digital request seem trustworthy
- 32% said correct company branding makes digital request seem trustworthy
- 27% said independent verification led them to trust the request.
In addition to recognisable names, context and branding being mistaken for authentication, the research also exposed other areas underscoring the need for verification training, including:
- 42% of employees would likely trust an urgent text from their CEO or boss requesting payment or sensitive data without verification, and 40% would trust a similar voice message. Among U.S. respondents, 59% would trust the text.
- 53% of those surveyed rely on a person’s face, voice, or display name to verify an unusual or sensitive video request. Just 28% prioritise another channel or organisational procedure.
- 38% of respondents identified insufficient training or employee awareness as their organisation’s greatest obstacle to cybersecurity preparedness.
The Cyber Trust Index Reveals Regional and Industry Comparisons
The global survey also compared levels of cyber trust and verification habits by country and industry, identifying key areas of alignment and glaring discrepancies. Australia emerged as the country with the highest rate of verification at 69% while only 22% of German respondents check the sender. Those surveyed in Italy said the cybersecurity skills shortage and lack of qualified staff is their top obstacle for cyber trust, and Spain cited the organisational security training gap as its No. 1 issue.
The survey found the healthcare industry was the vertical with the highest verification rate at 63% and financial services respondents reported the highest trust in digital content. Despite being the most skeptical of digital communications and CEO texts, less than half of government employees verified sensitive requests.
How MSPs Can Help Close the Trust Gap
The report details the unique opportunity MSPs and channel partners have to help global organisations strengthen verification habits and AI governance. It provides recommendations that range from documenting confirmation procedures for payments, credential resets, and confidential-data sharing to practical realistic executive impersonation scenarios and establishing approved AI tools, data-handling rules, and requirements for human review. Based on the survey findings, MSPs can also position customer employees for long-term success with layered protections and accessible reporting channels, and then measure progress by verifying behaviour and reporting alongside technical security performance.
The findings highlight a growing need for organisations to strengthen verification and reduce reliance on trust signals that can be manipulated by AI. WatchGuard helps organisations address these challenges through integrated identity security and secure access solutions that continuously verify users, secure access to critical resources, and reduce the risk of account compromise, AI-enabled fraud, and ransomware. Built on zero-trust principles and backed by 24/7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR), these solutions help organisations strengthen cyber resilience in an increasingly AI-driven threat landscape.
Download The Cyber Trust Index, including a full analysis of the data from WatchGuard Technologies.
Learn more at WatchGuard.com,
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