So, you can ask more interactive questions with Slaab. We'd like to keep this session as interactive as possible. Unfortunately, our next speaker is joining us remotely. I'm hoping she's retired. There she is. She's a young entrepreneur who's overseen the development of an app. It's a pretty amazing app, which I've used myself. And it's been developed to improve focus and performance. And she's worked with the likes of the NHS and Google.
And here to tell us more about harnessing mindfulness to overcome social engineering attacks, please welcome the CEO and co-founder of The Zensory, Jasmine Eskenzi. Thank you so much. And I'm really sorry not to be there in person. Unforeseen circumstances meant I couldn't make it, but I really did want to be there. And thank you Slaab for a great presentation beforehand as well.
So yeah, so today I'm going to be looking at mindfulness as both a solution to help empower the cyber workforce that we currently have and the future of the workforce, and also look at mindfulness as an intervention to actually combat social engineering. I'm going to show you some research and case studies and things that we've done as well. First of all, a bit about who I am. So a bit about me. As mentioned, I'm the co-founder and CEO of The Zensory. So we're really kind of aiming to improve workplace productivity and well-being.
Up until now, we've helped over 100,000 people worldwide to manage burnout and really help with work-life balance. And in the past few years, I've really focused on the cybersecurity industry for multiple reasons, which we'll go into shortly. Also a massive mental health ambassador. I previously worked as well with NHSX, all-party parliamentary group for longevity, looking at ways we could extend life expectancy and research into longevity, which I really found the preventative side of health really exciting.
And I think I'm wanting to apply that same ethos into cybersecurity and how we can make sure that we're not catching individuals when they're at that stressed or burnt out stage and how we can create a more preventative approach within the industry. And we've been lucky to work with some of the biggest organisations in the world in the past few years and also been mentioned, our work's been mentioned in many national publications, which is wonderful because we're really trying to advocate for best practice when it comes to mental health performance and well-being.
So let's start by looking at the state of the industry. Hopefully, you can all see this, unless it's all clear.
OK, perfect. So firstly, looking at the state of the workforce, more generally, we're seeing that workforces are stressed, burnt out and vulnerable. We have high levels of C-suite leaders looking to quit jobs for ones that better support their well-being. We're seeing, again, the Forbes is saying 82% of the workforce at risk of burnout, poor mental health, again, around younger employees.
And that's, again, to do with loneliness crises, the fact that we've got like mostly remote companies and lots of tech organisations and younger generations aren't having the support and the community that they once had. So we're looking at the workforce that's stressed, burnt out and vulnerable. Then on top of that, we look at the threat landscape, which is becoming more sophisticated, advanced and ever changing. As we all know, I don't need to tell you enough about this, but we know that we're seeing a more sophisticated threat landscape.
And then finally, to add to that, when we look at the state of awareness training, we're seeing that people are more disengaged and distractible than ever. You know, people kind of saying that cyber security training can be largely ignored or that global attention spans are narrowing. So when we look at what this is going to have an impact on for social engineers, this is absolutely a perfect ideal recipe for social engineering. We've got stress and burnout at high levels, you know, sophisticated threat landscape and then people being more distractible than ever.
So actually, what we're seeing is that's kind of creating this vulnerable workforce and organisations. So when we look at interventions, we think, OK, let's get the latest tech, let's implement the latest tech. But actually, 88 percent, I mean, this varies, but 88 percent of data breaches are caused by human error. So we can put the shiniest, most sophisticated technology in place. But actually, we're seeing that the human error is one of the core problems that we're seeing repeatedly. And then on top of that, we say, OK, let's have some training.
Fine, let's let's let's look after people in our training. But training alone can't protect us. When in phishing simulations, great, 75 percent of people can recognise phishing attempts. But actually, in reality, 20 percent are still falling for phishing scams in a real world setting. And this is the bit I found really fascinating. When you look at the reason for that, nearly half of the time, people, people were distracted or overwhelmed when they get phished. So this is something that really got me thinking, OK, so maybe this is a mindset issue.
So that was when I started to look at, OK, can a shift in mindset be the answer to this problem? So we set off to investigate this. And this is where, again, I really wanted to kind of go in with experts, scientists, researchers. I spoke to professors from different universities all over the world, neurophysiologists, neuroscientists, doctors, researchers really to understand, OK, what is causing this? What is really the cause of this? And one thing that was super interesting for me was a massive aha moment.
And when I show this to people, it's also an aha moment for them is the state of an amygdala hijack. So what happens in our brain? We're in this high stress state. We cannot think clearly. And the reason for that is something called an amygdala hijack, where we have increased activity in our amygdala, which is like our fight or flight centre of the brain. And we have decreased activity in our prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for attention, memory and focus. So when we're in this high stress state, we actually find it difficult to process information and to think clearly.
I mean, hands up how many of us, you know, in the morning we've lost our keys and we can't think clearly. We're just like, I know I can find them, but you're looking everywhere and you just can't think clearly because you're in that state. And actually, again, shifting our state into a low stress state is incredibly important because that is how we can then have normal functioning and high functioning activity in the prefrontal cortex. So our attention, our memory and our focus can then actually start to work at a high level.
So what's also interesting when we look at from a cybersecurity perspective is when we're stressed, again, like I mentioned, you're acting out of fear, you're acting on emotions, you can't recall information well, you make brash decisions. And there's also interesting research to show as well how we kind of don't remember information in the right order and things like that. So actually, when we can shift to that calm state, we can think critically, we can enhance our focus, and we can manage and control our emotions and recognise triggers.
So really, not only is it important for us within the cybersecurity industry, but it's actually important as well for end users to make sure that we're keeping organisations safer and that people are in this calmer state, the majority of the time. And actually, that is difficult because we're in a fast paced world. So that's where the concept of cyber mindfulness comes in.
So really, this is using mindfulness techniques and technology to shift the brain, body and emotions from stress to clarity to enhance cybersecurity posture. So and what I want to do is with this talk, I want to explain clear ways we can actually do it. So each of us today can actually go home and learn and try things as well with some actionable techniques. And I'm going to be taking you through these in more detail. So as someone that's written music for nearly a long time, binaural beats is something really interesting.
So I've actually interviewed a lot of professors that are using binaural beats for PTSD, with young people in war zones, how you can regulate their brain. Also with epilepsy shown to reduce seizures, binaural beats, deep sleep, focus is incredible. I'm going to tell you how that works shortly. Also using things like nature sounds, just the sound of nature can regulate our nervous system. So for example, a great thing you can do today is like shift your alarm clock to the sound of birdsong.
And it means immediately the body sees itself being in a safe environment, because when we would have had predators around when we evolved, that actually would have been activating us. So when you kind of hear the sound of birdsong, our nervous system recognises, oh, we're safe. So it goes into a safety mode. So even just hearing the sounds of nature can really regulate us quickly. Breathwork, an incredibly powerful tool to, again, balance you and help with that clarity.
You know, touch, some of us are more kinesthetic in the way that we like to regulate ourselves, and also pressure points. So these are some interventions that can help. And I want to talk about, again, one big thing that we're really big on is making tech our friend, not foe. So I know I personally find that like having so many emails, WhatsApp, LinkedIn messages, you know, we're inundated with information overload. And what my big passion is, is how we can make technology our friend, not our foe.
So how can we help technology to kind of help us with our calm, our clarity, our wellbeing, our performance? And so this is why we've kind of built these three modalities into our platform, looking at breathwork, audio, and touch. So firstly, breathwork is incredibly powerful. And this is something that the Navy does, top performing athletes. And in these high performance industries, you know, using your breath to help you regulate is very, very powerful. And one key thing to remember is the more that you inhale, a big sharp inhale is going to actually activate your sympathetic nervous system.
So that's going to help give you a burst of energy. And then when you exhale, there's a big sigh, like, that's going to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. So that's going to calm you down. So one key thing to remember is taking that big sharp inhale is going to give you a rush of energy and a big slow exhale at any point in your day is going to help you feel calmer. I know that's, I found that really powerful and I put that into practice regularly, it really helps. The other thing we can look at as an intervention is audio.
So as I mentioned, binaural beats, these are basically through headphones listening to two different frequencies in either ear. So maybe 100 hertz in one ear and 104 hertz in the other. Your brain then recognizes that as a four hertz difference. So that's actually getting our brain into a state of delta for deep sleep. Or for example, you know, 13 to 32 hertz can help us be more productive. So it's replicating the brain's brainwave patterns. And through sound, you're actually shifting the brain quite quickly into those states.
So that's something we can do while we work or to help us decompress. And finally, also interactive touch. So what we've also done is we've looked at turning the phone screen into an interactive touchpad to help people calm down. A lot of people doodle and they like fidgeting.
So again, that's actually a way to help you process information. And in the information age that we're in, processing information is incredibly important to help us think critically and come up with creative solutions to the problems that we're seeing. So how can we use this as well from a technological perspective? One key way that you can use mindfulness techniques during the working day is switching, context switching.
In cyber, there's a lot of context switching. So you can look at things like, you know, breathwork and movement, for example, in between meetings or in between tasks. Another way you can look at it is also using sound, you know, music with no highs, lows, lyrics or breaks. Also with the binaural beats to help you get into peak performance and stay in that state. And finally, to help reset your nervous system. So obviously, if you're in a vulnerable state, an email triggers you, really encouraging you to stop, pause, check in with your emotions.
And then again, you know, using some mindfulness intervention. And what I love about this is it can be used throughout the day. And also these techniques, you can use them within 30 seconds, you can start to see a shift.
So again, even as I'm speaking, I encourage you to take three deep breaths into your belly as I'm speaking. And just taking those three deep breaths, you'll notice a very actually visible shift in your in your mood and your relaxation.
And again, why is this important for end users in cybersecurity? Well, actually, nearly half the time people are falling for phishing attacks when they're distracted or overwhelmed. So when you look at the research in the industry, really exciting research came out this year from Anna Collard, showing that mindfulness as an intervention can address 23 out of the 33 susceptibility factors to social engineering. So this is really exciting. We're looking at a very powerful intervention here.
Because what's so cool about this is you can look at things like emotional regulation, self control, multitasking, stress, workload, all of these things can be addressed through mindfulness as an intervention. Not only that, but actually academic research has shown that supplemental training using a mindfulness approach improves resistance to phishing attacks, and also results in fewer commission errors and increase sustained attention to tasks. So when I started looking into this, I was like, this is really huge. And this is easy to do. It's affordable.
So why we're not implementing this more into the way that we're actually, you know, functioning, training, educating, and actually using technology as well. And again, as I mentioned, why is it important for those of us within the industry?
Well, if we look at some of the stats, over over half of us, in cybersecurity, feel that their work negatively impacts their mental health, nearly nearly 50% of cybersecurity incident responders have experienced burnout, but lack the support to avoid it. And 51% of people within cyber have experienced depression, anger or anxiety due to due to overwork from work. So it just reemphasizes just how important this is for the industry as a whole. And this is why over the past few years, we've really been leading a movement of cyber mindfulness.
And it's been really exciting to see this be picked up nationally as well, as a message as something that we need to be taking more seriously. And what I wanted to talk about as well as an industry example, because this is all great, the stats, the research, but I wanted to show you actually a case study we did with one of the four largest banks in Africa. So with full up with 6000 of their staff, we actually ran a cyber mindfulness campaign. So what we said was calm minds fight cybercrime. And I want to talk you through the four ways that you could run something similar.
So the first thing that we did is we gave a company wide workshop. So that was education, it was talking about things like recognizing stress, you know, seeing it in the body, also teaching people about the amygdala hijack and how you're vulnerable in that stress state. So it was initially education, then we gave them access to the sensory as a platform. And it could be that it could be any other mindfulness technique, mindfulness platform. And also mindful cyber education modules that we actually delivered. And then also well being days. So this was also run with HR and with the CSO.
So actually, what was really great about this is it was like pushed throughout the whole organization. And what was incredible was from over just six months, the bank had the highest ever reduction in phishing click rates, which was incredible from a cybersecurity perspective. And then also, we had a huge majority reporting improved well being reduction in stress, improved focus, and 96% feeling more conscious and alert when answering that email.
So, you know, it was a really big turning point for the bank as well with this. And we had the head of cybersecurity awareness training, saying that was the best campaign they've ever run. And it had a cascading effect on the entire organization. So I just thought that was a nice inspiring example to show like in industry, how this can be, how this can actually be run. And I'm more than happy to speak to any of you after about this, I'm going to leave my email so you can get in touch. And I wanted to close on just really stepping back and seeing how the future can look.
So I showed showed you the stats of how the industry is currently looking with levels of stress and burnout. If we continue as we are, we could look at an industry that's got high burnout rates. We could also be looking at high staff turnover and people leaving the industry, as we're seeing, if we're continuing as we are not taking this seriously.
Also, we can see distracted, stressed and vulnerable populations with increasing cyber breaches. And finally, we can also see that poor mental health actually costing Deloitte has actually shown that poor mental health costs 2.6 thousand pounds per employee per year. So that's crazy, the cost that we're actually seeing.
However, this could change. So I kind of want to show a perspective if we actually take this seriously, what this could look like. So firstly, again, I'm giving you these stats because I'm really, you know, I'm really passionate about the people side of things, but also from a business perspective, if we take mindset seriously and introduce mindfulness as an intervention, you can see up to 30 percent increase in productivity from mindfulness training. So that's the University of Massachusetts research.
Not only that, but also from our research, you can see up to 70 percent reduction in phishing click rates using mindfulness interventions and supplemental to cybersecurity training. Also, what we can see is high employee satisfaction, engagement and attracting top talent. Who doesn't want to see that? I know that we all want to see that coming into the industry. And then finally, as well, the World Health Organization are really stats actually that said for every one dollar spent on mental health, this can return by four dollars and improve productivity. So it's not just, you know, like fluffy.
This is actually we're looking at as hard evidence to show that, you know, taking this seriously has a huge impact on the bottom line, attracting talent and keeping our organization safer. So I guess from there, I ask you, what future do you want to create and be a part of? And if you are looking to be a change maker of the future, I encourage you to lead by example. I encourage you to educate and empower your teams with workshops and training and also shift behavior with the tools. So make sure people have access to these tools in their pocket throughout the day.
And finally, thank you for listening. There's my email and website if you want to get in touch. And you've also got access, I think, for the next three months. If you use the code Workplace24, you can have access to the platform. You can just download it on the App Store or the Play Store. And we've also got a web app. So you can just have a play around with it and see if you if it helps you reduce your stress. Thank you so much for listening. And feel free to get in touch with any questions. And I'll be on the panel with Saab shortly. Round of applause for Jasmine.
