The Role of Employee Awareness in Preventing Business Cyber Risks

Abstract

The issue of cybersecurity is often presented from a technical standpoint – as something related to firewalls, encryption algorithms and intrusion detection systems. But there is substantial amount of evidence that shows a completely different picture. Namely, the majority of successful attacks utilize human behavior rather than purely technical flaws. It should be understood that employees, on all levels, are the key element in the cyber risk assessment of any organization. They may be considered the first line of protection, people able to detect and report suspicious activities before it turns into a disaster – but if not properly trained, these very same people may unintentionally become the way in for attackers to penetrate into the company’s information systems.