Australian organisations are struggling to translate widespread cyber security training into safer employee behaviour, with new research highlighting persistent gaps in awareness, engagement, and specialist skills.
ESET’s Enterprise Cybersecurity Report 2026 found that 50 per cent of organisations identified employee awareness and training as a leading security challenge, despite 92 per cent providing training on an annual basis at least.
Almost half of respondents cited time constraints as a barrier to improving security behaviour, while 44 per cent said employees were not engaging with training and 38 per cent found the materials insufficiently engaging.
The workforce challenge extends beyond general awareness – 41 per cent identified a shortage of skilled cyber security professionals as a major concern.
The findings come as AI adoption accelerates and creates new risks for businesses. Ninety-two per cent of organisations are using or piloting AI, while 66 per cent experienced at least one AI-related cyber threat in the past year.
Employee misuse of generative AI was reported by 34 per cent of organisations, while 33 per cent experienced data leakage through AI platforms. AI-generated phishing and impersonation impacted 30 per cent.
ESET Asia-Pacific president Parvinder Walia said organisations needed to make employee training more relevant as AI made malicious communications increasingly convincing.
“Phishing and social engineering continue to demonstrate why the human layer of cyber security cannot be overlooked,” Walia said in a statement.
“As AI makes malicious communications more convincing and personalised, organisations need to continuously build employee awareness through relevant training and realistic simulations.”
The research also found that 72 per cent of organisations experienced at least one major cyber incident in the past year, with delayed detection, limited internal resources, and poor coordination among the most common challenges.
Commissioned by ESET and conducted by Blackbox Research in the second quarter of 2026, the study surveyed 400 Australian cyber security decision-makers and influencers.
You can read the full report here.
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