Despite 90% of IT and cybersecurity specialists agreeing that cyber security awareness is of the highest importance, 40% of these organisations have stated that employee awareness is low. Cyber security solutions are getting stronger and implementations of new technology like the cloud make your data safer than ever, but it seems we continue to overlook the biggest threat to our businesses out there, ourselves and our employees.
In this blog we are going to take a deeper look at the biggest security risk businesses currently face and how you can take the steps to mitigate it:
Social engineering is the tactic used by cyber-criminals all over the world and is the number one cause of cyber security breaches. Social engineering is the tactic of manipulating or tricking an employee or business owner into handing over important credentials or identifications without having to use a single line of malware code.
How Do Criminals Use Human Error to Cause Data Breaches?
Weak Passwords and Cracking
A Google study has found that only 35% of people use a different password for all their accounts. As highlighted in our recent 'worst passwords of 2022 blog post', a large majority of people have terrible passwords. Having easy-to-guess, simple-worded passwords makes your data easily accessible to criminals.
What's more shocking is how common bad password hygiene is even today. 45% of people have admitted to reusing their passwords on multiple accounts. Once a password is found it can easily be used to access any accounts with that password.
What is worse is that if you use a slightly adjusted password for most of your accounts, which many people do, if even one of your passwords is breached this can then be used to uncover your other variants easily. insuring you're passwords are unique and strong is imperative, if a criminal manages to gain access to your account they can easily cause a data breach.
Phishing
As highlighted in our ‘6 ways you can avoid getting caught out by phishing’ blog, phishing attacks have increased drastically in the last three years. Cybercriminals use email and text messages to trick you into giving them your personal information. These criminals are looking to steal your passwords accounts numbers and other important data. If they managed to successfully get this information they will gain access to banks, emails, and other important accounts, in turn, causing a data breach, and with a study by IBM found the average recovery cost of a data breach to be 3.1 million allowing this to happen would be catastrophic.
So, with more phishing attacks than ever, how do you go about getting yourself and your colleagues safe? Simply educating yourself on how to identify scam texts and emails is the number one defence. Applications like Usecure are made with the soul purpose of mitigating human risk, we go into more detail about Usecure later in this blog.
Real-life Human Error:
When we refer to human risk, we are usually referring to cyber risks and poor cyber hygiene, but human error can go beyond the virtual world. Security breaches can sometimes be caused by real-life errors.
Some of these errors include the following:
- Leaving computers unlocked
- Unlocking doors for people claiming to have left their I.D card at home
- Sneaking in as other members of staff enter (also known as tailgating)
- Leaving I.D cards on desks or break tables
- Leaving hardware used for work unattended in and out of the office gives criminals the chance to use a flash drive to directly install malware onto a computer
Teaching employees to be more vigilant and pedantic when it comes to everyday security precautions can help reduce the chance of a data breach caused by a real-life breach.
How to Mitigate Human Risk
Access Management Security Solutions
Automation-driven mobile app-based access management solutions have simplified the process of controlling and monitoring access to buildings and estates. By replacing traditional physical keys or swipe cards, mobile apps provide secure and flexible digital access passes. Automation allows for instant authentication, quick revocation, and seamless integration with other building systems. This streamlines the access management process, reduces administrative burden, and enhances security by minimizing the risk of lost or duplicated keys or cards.
Secure, Create, & Manage, Passwords Easily With Bitwarden:
Bitwarden is an open-sourced password manager that enables companies to protect multiple accounts with robust passwords using end-to-end encryption, without the hassle of needing to remember them.
Bitwarden offers everything from a general password manager and generator, to secure file and account sharing. Bitwarden is a complete security game changer. Having a password manager is imperative these days and if you are going to pick one bitwarden has everything you need and more to keep your data secure.
Bitwarden is open source which means their code is open to the public, this code can be viewed on GitHub. The reason this is great is that having an open code ensures that there is no foul play or gaps in bitwardens security, and if there ever are they can quickly be addressed by the public
Feel bitwarden would help keep your business secure or just want to learn a bit more? Click here to view our Bitwarden blog for a deeper insight.
Usecure The Cyber Hygiene Manager:
Usecure is the one-stop solution that evaluates, educates, and calculates its way to a security-savvy workforce improving cyber security hygiene in your business. Usecure offers useful features such as planted phishing emails that test employees without the risk of a data breach and security awareness training.
You can also be given password hygiene reports for your employees that let you see who in your office is at high risk, due to using weak or overused passwords. This is great for medium and large businesses as they have lots of employees which previously were near impossible to manage.
Address Human Risk to Stop Breaches
Advancements in cyber-security and constant software updates are helping tackle malicious cyber-attacks on businesses using the power of technology. Whilst this is undeniably beneficial, malicious cyber-attacks only make up 5% of all successful data breaches, the other 95% is caused by every business’s weakest security link, their employees. Human risk is the biggest threat businesses face, and with the average cost of a data breach at 3.6 million according to a study by IBM, it is more important than ever to address this and if you do not your business could be at risk.
With so many human error-related threats out there from phishing, and password cracking, to poor cyber hygiene and on-site exposure, keeping your business safe from human risk-related threats can seem a near-impossible task. Implementing solutions such as bitwarden for managing and generating passwords, and Usecure for mitigating human risk through statistics, calculations, and tests, will help tackle the root cause of data breaches through your employees.
Cyber-criminals are becoming more sophisticated and ignoring this threat can have monumental repercussions. If you feel ready to protect your business from human risk or just want to learn more about the solutions we've discussed please do not hesitate to get in contact on 0330 002 0045 or email enquiries@entrustit.co.uk, to be put in contact with one of our experienced consultants.
