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How Human Errors Can Cause Cybersecurity Breaches to Your Organization

By Axis Marketing

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The IBM Cyber Security Intelligence Index Report found that human error is a major contributing cause in 95 per cent of cybersecurity breaches. Human errors are unintentional actions or a lack of actions by employees and users that cause or allow a security breach to happen.

 

Human error can typically be separated into two categories:

  1. Skill-based errors—These errors occur when a user makes a small mistake when performing familiar tasks and activities. While they know what the end result is supposed to be, they make an error due to memory lapse, mistake or negligence.
  1. Decision-based errors—This type of error occurs when a user makes a faulty decision as a result of not having the necessary level of knowledge, not having enough information about the specific circumstance or not realizing inaction is a type of decision.

These mistakes and lapses in judgment can lead to cybersecurity attacks that put organizations in jeopardy. Cybercriminals know that technical security measures are only effective when humans properly utilize them.

 

The following are examples of how human error can be exploited:

  • Misdelivery—Misdelivery is a common threat to corporate data security and happens when a user sends something to the wrong recipient. Employees should take care to double-check all fields of information before hitting send.
  • Password issues—According to the National Centre for Cyber Security, 123456 is the most popular password in the world, and 45 per cent of people have the same password for multiple online services. Strong, unique passwords should be encouraged among employees.
  • Patching—Software developers are constantly working to detect exploits in programs and send software updates when one is discovered. Users and employees should immediately implement the update to remain protected against threats.

Addressing human error is key to reducing an organization’s chance of being successfully targeted. Educating workforces on mitigating cybersecurity threats can empower them to actively look out for and report new threats they may encounter.

 

 

Cyber Assessments:

With the increased usage of technology in people’s lives to stay connected while mostly working from home, cybersecurity threats have also become a growing issue and require proper assessments to manage any security gaps and risks that can harm your business.

Therefore, it’s important to conduct proper cyber assessments to mitigate the possibility of having your company’s cybersecurity system breached.

Get a FREE Cyber Risk Assessment to see if you're properly protecting your business from cyber risks:


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Tags: Cyber

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