Cybersecurity has been, and will continue to be, a crucial concern. Technology becomes more vulnerable as it becomes more intricate, sophisticated, and user-friendly. There are a number of things we could blame for that, but one of them is the human aspect. It’s no secret that people are the weakest link in any institution, structure, or organization. However, you may be surprised to know that humans are also the weakest link in cybersecurity.
This blog will look at how and why humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity and will examine the priorities you should have to protect you and your IT infrastructure.
Are Humans Really the Weakest Link in Cybersecurity?
There is no doubt that in cybersecurity, people are the weakest link. No matter how effective your technical protections and defenses are — firewalls, IDS , or IPS — a determined attacker can always get around them through tricking or forcing an employee into giving them access.
This is due to the fact that people are fallible and prone to error. As we have seen with recent high-profile data breaches, mistakes in cybersecurity can have fatal results.
Additionally, cybercriminals’ preferred target is people. People can be tricked into opening infected attachments or clicking on dangerous links through the use of social engineering tactics – and once the systems have become infected, discovering and uninstalling malicious software can be incredibly difficult.
Learn more about Social Engineering here.
But Why Are Humans the Weakest Link?
There are four main reasons why humans are the weakest link in cybersecurity:
- People are naturally trustworthy and want to think the best about other people, and are more susceptible to fraud and social engineering schemes. Because they are aware of this, scammers and cybercriminals take advantage of our confidence to gain what they need.
- Because we are creatures of habit, it is difficult for us to break our routines, and attackers find it simple to take advantage of known weaknesses as a result. An attacker might be aware, for instance, that you regularly check your email first thing in the morning. At such moment, they might send you a phishing email, hoping you’ll open a link or an attachment before you have a chance to consider it.
- We frequently lack the time to focus on details, which results in errors that hackers can take advantage of.
- We are emotional beings, which might skew our judgment and leave us more open to social engineering scams. When we become emotionally immersed in anything, we tend to let our guard down, which makes us vulnerable to scammers and other fraudulent conduct.
If you’d like to look at some examples of this, check out this article here.
Forming an Alliance
In order to include humans as allies in your cybersecurity program, there are a few crucial strategies:
- Educate Your Employees: Staff must be informed about cybersecurity risks and best practices. They will become more knowledgeable about potential hazards and how to avoid them as a result. You can do this through Cybersecurity Awareness Training (SAT), and Mirazon offers the best of the best for you and your employees.
- Document and Report Security Incidents: You want to motivate staff members to report any shady or suspicious behavior/incidents. This will enable you to spot possible issues early on and take appropriate action.
- Security Culture: Your company should adopt a security-conscious culture. This entails elevating everyone’s priority of security and encouraging a sense of shared responsibility for it.
Many cybersecurity news articles highlight how successful businesses have been at thwarting online threats. Yet, human error – not a sophisticated attack – poses the greatest threat to cybersecurity. The weakest link in cybersecurity is still a human.
It’s always the human factor – whether it’s an unhappy, overconfident, or uneducated employee – and for this reason, human error is the main cause of cybersecurity breaches.
If you’d like to learn more about how to better prepare your business, employees, and IT infrastructure using our Layered Security Strategy, please reach out to us!