Streamlining Cybersecurity Strategies: The Role of Human Risk Management

In today’s digital ecosystem, organizations are increasingly pivoting towards recognizing the importance of human risk management to their cybersecurity strategies. The transition from one size fits all, compliance-driven awareness programs to human risk management's tailored approach based on a holistic view of risky user behavior, marks a critical shift in cybersecurity. 

Masha Sedova, VP of Human Risk Strategy, and I led a recent webinar detailing how Mimecast is leading the charge in making human risk management more accessible. Watch the webinar to learn more. 

Imagine the ability to not only see all of the risky behaviors your users are engaging in but react with the appropriate targeted intervention. This promise is part of why more and more organizations are now viewing a human risk management (HRM) platform as an essential part of their cybersecurity strategy. An effective HRM platform offers a data-rich overview of an organization's human risk, pinpointing high-risk, as well as highly attacked individuals and facilitating timely interventions.

Human Risk Management in Cybersecurity: A Shift in Strategy

The human component, being the weakest link in any defense framework, contributes to 68% of all security breaches. Conventional risk management techniques, such as completion of training and responses to simulated phishing, have become inadequate. To fully grasp the risk posed by employees, it's vital to evaluate a wide spectrum of factors, including their handling of confidential data, their reaction to urgent emails, and their overall security acumen.

HRM’s transformative process involves creating transparency into an employee's risk potential. This requires the evaluation of three aspects: their security practices, the attack frequency they encounter, and their organizational role. By amalgamating data from diverse security technologies, a holistic view of an employee's risk level can be constructed. This empowers organizations to pinpoint the top 10% of high-risk individuals and tailor programs to bolster these individuals in risk areas.

Upon identifying the risk source, organizations can then modify their risk management strategies. This entails a radical change in awareness training, offering feedback, alerts, and enhancing visibility for security teams and executives.

Looking ahead, these organizations can also customize protective measures based on an individual's risk level. This may include modifying access reviews, entitlement reviews, web and endpoint controls, and other security protocols in accordance with an individual's risk profile.

Managing Individual Risk: A Guide to an HRM Platform

HRM platforms deliver a comprehensive analysis of an individual's risk profile, offering insights into behavior patterns, attack factors, and an overall risk score. The attack factor, a key metric, quantifies an individual's risk exposure, such as the quantity of phishing emails received. While end users cannot control their attack factor, this data is invaluable to security professionals due to its direct influence on overall risk.

An integral part of the platform is the action log, which chronicles all recent system responses to an individual's behavior. This includes email nudges, matched rules, and the status of each action. By filtering and analyzing this information, organizations can gain a profound understanding of an individual's behavior and the system's response.

Another primary function of the platform is the risk analysis page. It offers a holistic view of all users within an organization, facilitating a detailed analysis of high-risk individuals and areas. The platform provides numerous filters, such as attack factor and specific behavior types, enabling organizations to delve deeper into their data.

Additionally, the platform features watch lists, which are sets of users that meet predefined criteria. These lists are directly linked to specific nudges that can be activated within the platform, enabling organizations to effectively identify and monitor high-risk individuals.

The Bottom Line

The evolution towards human risk management and the HRM platform marks a pivotal transformation in cybersecurity. It underscores the importance of recognizing employees' risk potential and tailoring strategies to mitigate this. It transcends mere training; it necessitates a holistic blueprint for human risk management, factoring in an array of elements. This paradigm shift promises a future of enhanced cybersecurity.

The HRM platform provides organizations with an extensive, insightful perspective of their human risk topography. It empowers them to pinpoint high-risk individuals, decipher their behavior patterns, and execute effective interventions. With this platform at their disposal, organizations can substantially elevate their security stance and curtail human-centric security risks.

To learn more, listen to our recent webinar, Human Risk – It’s Not One Size Fits All.