Imagine being one of the largest companies in the world that has spent millions of dollars on building a defense from the world’s best security solutions. Now imagine getting data breached because one of your employees clicked on a malicious link.
What can be frustrating as business owners is that despite spending hours and dollars on training, the employee still falls for textbook phishing attacks. It costs them financial loss, operational disruptions, and reputational damage that takes years to recover from. For many small and medium businesses, it can cost them their business.
Human error remains a common factor in most data breaches, whether it is the decade old Equifax breach that exposed millions of records or the most recent Salesforce environment-specific data breaches that terrified some of the biggest companies in the globe.
A question that runs at the back of the mind for many owners is how they can make people not just aware but also prepared against the latest threats. Let us explore what human firewalls is and how organizations can assess and improve their human firewall.
What is a human firewall?
Just like how a technical firewall comprises all the necessary hardware and software that work towards identifying and blocking malicious traffic, a human firewall comprises a team of people who follow security best practices to identify, respond, report, and prevent risks and threats.
It offers a human layer of protection comprising educated, aware, and prepared employees who do everything to keep the networks and infrastructure secure. Organizations need a human firewall because attacks can go past traditional measures, with attackers using social engineering methods to target unaware users.
Signs that your human firewall needs improvement
Your human firewall needs improvement if you’re:
- employees frequently fail at phishing simulations
- training sessions are infrequent
- employees are unable to recognize suspicious activities
- security policies are unclear and ineffective
- leaders and managers don’t see cybersecurity as a priority
- employees don’t feel safe or comfortable in reporting incidents
How to test the effectiveness of your human firewall?
Answer questions like:
- What are the Phishing clicking rates of your employees?
- How many of them report actual incidents?
- How do they perform on training assessments?
- How much time do they take to report incidents?
- How often do they engage in risky behavior?
How can you improve your human firewall and mitigate human error?
- Make cybersecurity a part of the company’s culture where everyone (whether it is a CEO or an intern) sees it as a shared responsibility.
- Leaders must define clear policies, roles, and responsibilities across different levels towards security and incident response.
- Training programs must be tailored as per the awareness assessments, phishing simulations, and other role-based risk assessments instead of commoditized programs.
- Instead of using solely information, use narratives to make training programs more interesting with narratives, real-world case studies, and gamification.
- Establish a mechanism where people can anonymously and comfortably report incidents/suspicious activities.
- Regularly spread awareness of the latest threats and risks through social media and blogs, offering cybersecurity tips that everyone can use to keep their data and identities safe.
- Assess awareness gaps regularly instead of annually or periodically, and frequently train employees based on the assessment.
- Conduct interactive sessions with the assistance of cybersecurity experts, where employees and management can bridge their awareness gaps and get answers to their cybersecurity queries.
