Risky human behavior is viewed as one of the greatest threats to the security of a company's data, according to a report published Wednesday.

The report from information security company Code42 indicates that human emotion, particularly executives' feelings of ownership over their own work, is what puts a company at the greatest risk when it comes to losing precious data.

The new data is based on a survey sent to 1,634 people, including business and IT or security leaders in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Switzerland, all of whom work at companies of 250 employees or more.

Human emotion plays a great part in risking a data breach, according to the report, particularly when executives fail to understand that the work they produce in the office belongs to the company, and needs to be protected as such.

Fifty percent of CEO respondents said they believe their work is their own and not their company's. Of those 50 percent, 59 percent responded they feel that way because they've used their own time to create said product. Forty-six percent said they feel like they impart a little bit of themselves into their work which is why they feel ownership over it.

Further, 78 percent of the chief information security officers surveyed believe that employees will do their jobs the way they want to despite what kind of cybersecurity policies are put in place.

When it comes to phishing, 63 percent of CEOs indicated that they have clicked on a link that they thought they shouldn't have or didn't intend to. When asked why they didn't report clicking on the suspicious link, 38 percent of CEOs indicated that they thought it was something they could sort out on their own.

Fifty-nine percent of CEOs indicated that they have also downloaded something to their computer knowing the program they downloaded had not been approved by the IT department. As for the reason to download said programs, 36 percent of CEOs said they believe that the IT department does not understand what they need to do to get their job done.

“Even the strongest data securities policies and perimeters are no match for human behavior,” the report said.

Below are three additional takeaways from the report:

• Twenty percent of business leaders who responded indicate that they believe ransomware is the biggest threat to their business.
• Companies are saving up cryptocurrency in the event that they'll need to pay off criminals who use ransomware on their servers. Seventy-three percent of chief information security officers indicated that over the past year they have stockpiled cryptocurrency for such payments.
• In the event of a breach, the majority of respondents think they will be able to recover their data. Sixty-seven percent of business leaders said that they believe if they lost all of their data tomorrow they would be able get all of it back. Seventy-six percent of security and IT leaders also believe this.