Most companies prioritize hardening their systems and supporting technology when deploying new risk management strategies. Since these digital surfaces are where cybercriminals exploit security vulnerabilities, it only makes sense to keep them secure.
However, one of the most unpredictable elements of security planning is also the largest threat businesses face – the human element.
While cybersecurity solutions continue to become more advanced, human operators are still prone to the same imperfections and tendencies that can have significant implications on business security.
Recognizing and addressing these risks is critical when implementing safeguards that improve the integrity and overall effectiveness of your cybersecurity defenses.
Recognizing the Human Element’s Impact on Cybersecurity
Whether we know it or not, many of the decisions we make every day become influenced by our own cognitive biases. These biases can make us more prone to be overly trusting of others and, sometimes, overconfident when confronted with potentially risky situations.
In cybersecurity planning, certain cognitive biases can create new business vulnerabilities that are high-priority targets for cybercriminals. Using sophisticated social engineering techniques, cybercriminals often look to manipulate and exploit common human tendencies.
Phishing schemes, for example, prey on many people’s curiosity and willingness to open email attachments or click on links when they’re not sure where they’re coming from. Malicious individuals also leverage human emotions like fear or a sense of urgency to push people to act before they think, placing themselves and the business at increased risk.
Common Human-Driven Risk Factors
Most businesses accept that there is a certain amount of risk associated with their employees. To help counteract this, they’ll often increase their investments in new security solutions or create stricter configurations in their network firewalls.
However, it’s important to recognize that all staff members make up a “human firewall,” and it’s important to ensure they provide the additional protections that a business needs to stay secure. This all begins by identifying some of the common human-driven risk factors that need to be addressed, including:
- Weak Password Practices – Most company employees need to access multiple systems or SaaS solutions daily. Having to manage multiple credential types for each of these platforms can be time-consuming, leading many individuals to use easy-to-remember usernames and passwords. This can be a significant cybersecurity risk if left unchecked.
- Susceptibility to Social Engineering – Unlike next-generation firewalls (NGFW) and various security-enabled AI solutions, not all employees have built-in anomaly detectors. Cybercriminals leverage this and view company employees as their first target before attempting to breach company systems. Social engineer attacks continue to be highly effective for obtaining access credentials and other information useful for launching large-scale attacks on businesses.
- Insider Threats – Insider threats are another concern businesses should consider when securing their systems. These can come from current or former employees and third-party partners. Insider threats can open up many intentional or unintentional risks for a business that is harder to detect and contain.
Applying a Holistic Approach to Business Security
When planning your business’s risk management strategies, it’s important to remember that cybersecurity is not just the responsibility of an IT department. Everyone in the organization has a role to play when creating and keeping an organization secure.
To help instill the importance of this shared responsibility and ensure your business is following best security practices, below are some important steps you should take:
Train Employees to Make Better Decisions
Although insider threat dangers are something businesses should be continuously mindful of, many of these threats don’t always originate from malicious intent. Often, a lack of awareness or inadequate security training can cause these threats to emerge.
Companies should keep their employees regularly up-to-speed on new security initiatives, and each individual can support them better. Whether following strict guidelines for managing their user credentials, following best practices when opening or responding to emails, or reporting suspicious network activities, all of these actions contribute to maintaining good cybersecurity hygiene.
Setting up regular security training routines with various departments helps to reinforce any best practices put in place. It also reminds employees of the important role they play when keeping their information safe and reducing the likelihood of a successful cyber attack taking place.
Assess Specific Risk Areas
Conducting risk assessments regularly throughout the year helps to keep your fingers on the pulse of your overall cybersecurity posture. The severity of certain business risks can change over time, especially as a business scales. What may have been a small risk years ago could eventually become much more significant in the future if it was never addressed.
Formal risk assessments help you to understand your current vulnerability state. They’ll help you to identify any specific areas of weakness and address them. Working with penetration services is another effective way to validate any efforts made in your security hardening by putting security measures up against simulated real-world threats to see how they perform.
Apply a Proactive Security Mindset
The sooner you start planning your security initiatives, the safer your business will be. Waiting for an attack to take place before you start putting into place various security measures can lead to more risk.
Taking the time to understand the current threat landscape in relation to your current readiness state will allow you to prioritize important initiatives such as implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA), following certain data security and compliance strategies, and deploying other protective security layers.
Creating a More Mature Cybersecurity Readiness Plan
Making your business more secure requires more than investments in new systems and technology. It also demands a harder look at how well your employees are trained and supported when implementing best security practices.
Creating an environment where there is shared accountability toward business security is essential. Providing continuous training and education on relevant security risks and mitigation strategies keeps everyone involved and helps keep an organization safe from evolving threats.
By recognizing the significance of the human factor in all of your security planning initiatives, you’ll be able to establish a more mature cybersecurity readiness plan that limits your exposure and establishes a stronger security posture moving forward.
Nazy Fouladirad is President and COO of Tevora, a global leading cybersecurity consultancy. She has dedicated her career to creating a more secure business and online environment for organizations across the country and world. She is passionate about serving her community and acts as a board member for a local nonprofit organization.