More than ever, cyber criminals are focusing on the human attack surface for financial gain. Protecting the organization by educating employees on risks and threats has become a critical concern for organizations across Canada, especially in key sectors like healthcare, finance, energy, and critical infrastructure.
Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting employees and executives as the weakest link in an organization’s security posture. They exploit human vulnerabilities through sophisticated social engineering tactics, phishing campaigns, and insider threats to gain access to sensitive data and systems through business email compromise (BEC) or identity fraud.
In the healthcare sector, attackers target medical records and patient data, which can be sold on the dark web or used for identity theft. Financial institutions face threats from ransomware attacks that can erode customer confidence, cripple operations and lead to substantial financial losses. Energy and critical infrastructure sectors are prime targets for both cybercriminals and state-sponsored actors seeking to disrupt essential services or gain strategic advantages. Ransomware, frequently deployed through social engineering attacks, “is almost certainly the most disruptive form of cybercrime facing Canadians,” according to the federal government’s National Cyber Threat Assessment 2023-2024.
What can you do to face this threat?
Based on our experience, we’ve identified five key strategies for mitigating the risk to the human attack surface.
1. Comprehensive Employee Training and Awareness
One of the primary reasons for prioritizing employee training is the prevalence of human involvement in security breaches. According to Mimecast’s State of Email & Collaboration Security Report 2024, 74% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human factors, including errors, stolen credentials, misuse of access privileges, and social engineering.
By educating your employees about potential risks, proper cyber hygiene, and how to identify various types of attacks, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood of successful breaches. Whether you are planning to build your own security awareness program or looking for the assistance of an experienced partner to support you, consider these key issues before you start:
- One size doesn’t fit all: A comprehensive training program must be tailored to different roles and departments within your organization. This approach ensures your team members receive relevant information specific to their job functions and the types of threats they are most likely to encounter. For example, finance department employees might receive more focused training on recognizing financial fraud attempts, while IT staff might need more in-depth technical security training. Who has access to your company’s “crown jewels”? They will be a prime target for attackers, and need to be protected accordingly.
- Test, test, test: Simulated phishing exercises are an essential component of effective security awareness training. These exercises expose employees to realistic – but harmless – phishing attempts, helping them recognize and respond appropriately to actual threats. By regularly conducting these simulations, organizations can assess their employees’ readiness and identify areas that require additional training. AI-generated phishing and “whaling” attacks are extremely sophisticated, correcting the obvious spelling and poor grammar that characterized phishing attacks of the recent past, and making attacks harder to spot.
- Micro-training works: Continuous learning and reinforcement are key to maintaining a strong security posture. Cyber threats evolve rapidly, and employees need to stay updated on the latest attack vectors and prevention techniques. Regular, bite-sized training sessions delivered throughout the year can help keep security best practices fresh in employees’ minds. This approach is more effective than one-time, lengthy training sessions that can overwhelm your staff with information. It’s also easier to track the progress and performance of your programs by testing them on a regular basis, and adjusting course as necessary.
- Get them engaged: An effective training program should also focus on engaging content that resonates with employees. Don’t treat training as a check-the-box exercise. Using humour, real-world scenarios, and interactive elements can make the training more memorable and enjoyable, increasing retention of critical security concepts. Testing engagement is key as well – spot-testing throughout the training will help confirm that your viewers are still paying attention, and will flag areas where content needs to be clarified or reinforced.
- Dealing with non-compliance: Inevitably, some personnel may choose to ignore security awareness programs, or consistently fail spot tests. These behaviours can pose significant risks to the company’s data, systems, and reputation. It’s important to track participation to identify and address staff who are exposing your organization to these risks. Where there is a pattern of non-compliance, consider integrating training participation into performance reviews, offer personalized in-person training sessions, and establish accountability measures for repeated issues (e.g., escalation to a supervisor or HR).
Your people are your first line of defense. An investment in them could save massive costs in terms of data breach management, fines, legal fees, and lost goodwill.
2. Develop a Strong Security Culture
Development of a strong security culture is critical in securing the human threat surface. A well-trained workforce contributes to a positive security culture within the organization. When your employees understand the importance of cybersecurity and their role in maintaining it, they are more likely to adhere to security policies and report suspicious activities promptly. This can be achieved by focusing on several key elements:
- Set the tone from the top: it’s more important than you might expect. If leadership doesn’t signal that they are concerned and invested in security, then the rank-and-file staff are less likely to care either. Leaders must actively champion cybersecurity, setting an example by following protocols and regularly communicating its importance. This top-down approach ensures security becomes a shared organizational priority.
- Empower your team: Create an environment in which employees feel empowered to report potential threats, and are encouraged to report suspicious activities. Implement clear reporting mechanisms and recognize those who contribute to security efforts, fostering a culture of vigilance. These grassroots security efforts help address the primary attack vector: the 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) reveals that over two-thirds (68%) of data breaches involved a non-malicious human element. By focusing on human-centric threats, you can better prepare for – and respond to – the most common types of incidents effectively.
- Baked-in security: Embed security practices into daily operations through comprehensive policies and regular training. This approach of integrating security into business processes helps ensure that cybersecurity becomes an integral part of your organization’s DNA, enhancing overall resilience against threats.
Developing this strong security culture helps prevent security incidents, and can reduce the impact of incidents should they occur. Tailored and tested plans can help mitigate the consequences of mistakes and improve overall incident response effectiveness by enabling a faster response.
3. Implement Robust Technical Controls
Robust security controls are crucial in protecting the human threat surface, which is often considered the weakest link in an organization’s cybersecurity defenses. Proofpoint’s 2024 Voice of the CISO report suggests that 74% of CISOs identify human error as the most significant vulnerability in cybersecurity, up sharply from 60% in 2023. To address this risk, be sure that you have robust security controls in the following areas:
- Authentication: Comprehensive identity and access management strategies are vital. The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024 report reveals that – for the first time in the history of the report – abuse of valid accounts is being seen just as often as phishing (evident in 30% of attacks). Organizations are implementing strong authentication measures beyond just two-factor authentication (2FA) to ensure the use of proper credentials and trust for all devices and users accessing systems and services. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access even if passwords are compromised. By requiring multiple forms of verification, MFA makes it much more difficult for attackers to gain entry using stolen credentials, effectively mitigating the impact of phishing and social engineering attacks.
- Least privilege and zero trust: Zero-trust architectures operate on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” providing a more comprehensive approach to security. This model assumes that no user or device should be automatically trusted, regardless of their location or network connection. By continuously verifying and authenticating every access request, zero-trust architectures significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches. Remember: zero trust is an approach – a philosophy – not a “product”.
- Don’t forget BEC: Email filtering and anti-phishing tools are essential for defending against what remains one of the most common attack vectors. These tools help prevent malicious emails from reaching users’ inboxes, reducing the likelihood of successful phishing attempts and protecting sensitive information from being inadvertently disclosed. Don’t underestimate the threat of business email compromise (BEC): the days of easy-to-spot phishing attacks are behind us, with AI tools helping cyber criminals craft realistic, error-free emails and texts.
- Divide to defend: Network segmentation and access controls limit the potential damage an attacker can cause if they manage to breach the network. By dividing the network into smaller, isolated segments and implementing strict access policies, organizations can contain threats and prevent lateral movement, minimizing the impact of a successful attack.
A governance structure supporting these security controls helps to create multiple layers of defense, addressing various aspects of the human threat surface and making it much more challenging for attackers to exploit human vulnerabilities.
4. Leveraging AI and Machine Learning for Threat Detection
As threats become more sophisticated, traditional security measures are struggling to keep up. The bad guys are using AI to attack your people, so it’s crucial for you to incorporate AI into your security strategies too.
Leading organizations are recognizing this. Proofpoint’s 2024 Voice of the CISO report says that 87% of CISOs are turning to AI-powered technology to protect against human error and block advanced human-centric cyber threats. And these efforts are paying off: IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024 reported that “[o]rganizations that applied AI and automation to security prevention saw the biggest impact from their AI investments in this year’s study compared to three other security areas: detection, investigation and response. They saved an average of USD 2.22 million over those organizations that didn’t deploy AI in prevention technologies”. It’s an edge you can’t afford to ignore.
Some ways to put AI and Machine Learning (ML) to work for you:
- Enhanced detection capabilities: AI and ML algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify subtle patterns and anomalies that may indicate threats, surpassing traditional signature-based methods in detecting novel and evolving attacks.
- Real-time threat response: ML enables real-time identification and response to potential threats, allowing for immediate action to mitigate risks before they can cause significant damage. These tools provide nearly instantaneous analysis that humans simply cannot match.
- Predictive analytics: By learning from historical data and current trends, AI can predict likely future attacks, enabling you to proactively strengthen your defenses against emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Tools like User Entity and Behaviour Analytics (UEBA) can sound the alert in case of anomalous activities that could signal an emerging security incident. Companies are implementing continuous monitoring and analysis of user behavior to detect anomalies earlier in the attack lifecycle, including insider threats and unauthorized activities.
This is one of the fastest-growing areas of cybersecurity today. To help best protect the human threat surface, governance and secure deployment of AI-driven tools, techniques, and processes need to be on your radar.
5. Regular Security Audits, Penetration Tests and Vulnerability Assessments
Leading companies are making these a standard part of their operating procedures, continuously evaluating their human attack surface. Beyond a regulatory or compliance imperative, independent audits and assessments can help validate the efforts you’ve put in, and pinpoint and prioritize additional areas for continuous improvement. Some of the benefits:
- Fresh eyes can help: A third-party audit can uncover hidden vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your security posture, particularly those related to human behaviour and social engineering tactics. Regular assessments help identify areas where employees may be susceptible to phishing, pretexting, baiting, and other social engineering attacks.
- Identify and prioritize: These evaluations provide visibility into your current cyber risk landscape, allowing you to prioritize and allocate resources to address the most critical human-centric threats. By systematically assessing vulnerabilities, you can develop targeted training programs and implement controls to mitigate the risks associated with human error and insider threats.
- It’s the right thing to do: Conducting regular security assessments demonstrates a commitment to protecting your customer data and maintaining regulatory compliance. This proactive approach helps build trust with customers and partners while providing evidence of due diligence in the event of a breach. It also ensures that security measures keep pace with evolving threats targeting the human element of cybersecurity, providing you a broader perspective than you may be able to achieve on your own.
Experience is a must to ensure that comprehensive audits, testing, and assessments are done collaboratively with your teams. A trusted partner will help you learn and implement best practices and – most importantly – give you the opportunity to identify gaps in your security posture before the bad guys can.
Next Steps
To be sure, there’s no one answer to defending the human threat surface in your organization. A thoughtful, layered security approach is needed to best manage the risks. As one of Canada’s leading cybersecurity-focused companies, ISA Cybersecurity is well-positioned to help you protect your people, your organization, and your reputation. Contact us today to learn more.
