Senior managers may recognise the risks of lax IT security, but they seldom practice what they preach.

A new report to be published today from the Economist Intelligence Unit has found that, while board members see security as one of the top issues facing their companies, their knowledge of best practices is lacking.

Four out of five admitted to opening an email attachment from someone they did not know, and one in five confessed to using their own name as the password to access their network.

"There's a serious problem here," said Gareth Lofthouse, senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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