The number of apps and web tools that employees use on a regular basis continues to increase. Most departments have about 40-60 different digital tools that they use. 71% of employees feel they use so many apps that it makes work more complex.
Many of the apps that we use every day have various alerts. We get a “ping” when someone mentions our name on a Teams channel. We get a notification popup that an update is available. We get an alert of errors or security issues.
App fatigue is a very real thing and it’s becoming a cybersecurity problem. The more people get overwhelmed by notifications, the more likely they are to ignore them.
Just think about the various digital alerts that you get.
They come in:
- Software apps on your computer
- Web-based SaaS tools
- Websites where you’ve allowed alerts
- Mobile apps and tools
- Email banners
- Text messages
- Team communication tools such as Slack or Teams
Some employees are getting the same notification on two different devices. This just adds to the problem.
This leads to many issues that impact productivity and cybersecurity. Besides alert bombardment, every time the boss introduces a new app, that means a new password.
Estimates are that the average employees is already juggling about 191 passwords. They use at least 154 of them sometime during the month.
How Does App Fatigue Put Companies at Risk?
Employees Begin Ignoring Updates
When digital alerts interrupt your work, you can feel like you’re always behind. This leads to ignoring small tasks seen as not time-sensitive. Tasks like clicking to install an app update.
Employees overwhelmed with too many app alerts tend to ignore them. When updates come up, they may quickly click them away. They feel they can’t spare the time right now and aren’t sure how long it will take.
Ignoring app updates on a device is dangerous. Many of those updates include important security patches for found vulnerabilities.
When they’re not installed, the device and its network are at a higher risk. It becomes easier to suffer a successful cyberattack.
Employees Reuse Passwords (and They’re Often Weak)
Another security casualty of app fatigue is password security.
The more SaaS accounts someone must create, the more likely they are to reuse passwords. It’s estimated that passwords are typically reused 64% of the time.
Credential breach is a key driver of cloud data breaches. Hackers can easily crack weak passwords. The same password used several times leaves many accounts at risk.
Employees May Turn Off Alerts
Some alerts are okay to turn off. For example, do you really need to know every time someone responds to a group thread?
But, turning off important security alerts is not good.
There comes a breaking point when one more push notification can push someone over the edge.
What’s the Answer to App Fatigue?
It’s not realistic to just go backward in time before all these apps were around.
But you can put a strategy in place that puts people in charge of their tech, and not the other way around.
- Streamline your business applications
- Have your IT team set up notifications
- Automate application updates
- Open a two-way communication about alerts