Predictions 2025: Human Risk Management Will Be This Year's Hot Topic

Human Error Is the Top Reason for Security Breaches

There is a strong general consensus among security professionals, backed up by years of data and hard-learned lessons, that the majority of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. These errors manifest themselves in things such as:

• clicking on phishing links in emails.
• mistakenly sharing sensitive data with unauthorized recipients.
• using weak passwords.
• failing to update security patches.
• connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi networks.
• inadvertently leaving systems with critical data exposed due to misconfiguration.

When human error occurs, organizations must react quickly to mitigate security risks, and naturally, organizations are also working hard to prevent human error in the first place.

Human Risk Management Will Be the Hot Topic

Security professionals are definitely recognizing that managing employee behavior and decisions is now a very important step in securing their organizations. This means that human risk management is going to be one of the hottest topics in 2025.

In the coming year, the term human risk management will penetrate the mainstream as organizations become attuned to this reality. For years, the industry sat on the fence, not wanting to point fingers at the biggest vulnerability organizations face – human risk – but in 2025, this is what the industry is likely to be talking about the most.

Organizations Must Address Human Risk Management in 2025

Elevate Security, now a Mimecast business, found that 8% of employees are responsible for 80% of security incidents. This means that CISOs will have to balance productivity and innovation on the one hand with human risk on the other – and the emergence of credible AI will support in this goal. 

But the fact remains that human error can be very damaging to an organization, including the cost of remediating a data breach, the cost of a loss in productivity during the period which the breach is being repaired, as well as long-term reputation loss to the organization’s brand. Both Yahoo! and Equifax are two well-known companies who experienced very public data breaches that were the result of a combination of human error and software vulnerabilities.

Human Risk Management

To combat human error, organizations across the globe are focusing on human risk and turning to human risk management platforms. This shift in focus will undoubtedly lead to human risk management being the topic everyone is discussing.

In the past, organizations have tried to address the problem of human risk via multiple, disconnected solutions. But, today it’s more important than ever to ensure that organizations can protect themselves from internal or insider risk. This leads organizations, especially smaller businesses, to ask their employees to not only identify threats that come in via email and collaboration tools, but also to properly handle organizational data.

By utilizing a connected human risk management platform, organizations of all sizes can solve multiple use cases covering areas across the spectrum from external risks, like business email compromise, uncontrolled collaboration channels, and secure data retention to insider threats like exfiltration of critical company data and identification of compromised users.

Human Risk Management Platforms

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.

The Bottom Line

The evolution towards human risk management and the HRM platform marks a pivotal transformation in cybersecurity, as does the industry’s willingness to stop tip-toeing around the fact that humans can be the weakest link in cybersecurity.

This evolution 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 for organizations of all sizes.

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.

Mimecast is leading the way in human risk management and HRM platforms. Our mission to advance security and transform the way organizations manage and mitigate risk is now bolstered by our very own HRM platform, human risk dashboard, and Mimecast Engage, our new security awareness product. By integrating security into the very fabric of human interaction, organizations can set a new standard for protection in an increasingly complex digital world.

Other Predictions 2025 Blogs:

Balancing Time-to-Market Is Imperative

The Time from Discovery to Exploitation Will Continue to Decrease

Meaningful AI Will Be Embedded in Technology

Strategic Partnerships Benefit Customers

Maintaining Compliance in an Evolving Threat Landscape