Cybersecurity and Human Error. Pesky Humans
March 10, 2022
Workers make honest mistakes. And sometimes those mistakes lead to security breaches. Darktrace describes how to guard against human imperfection in its DarkReading blog post, “Insider Threats Are More than Just Malicious Employees.” There is the worker who implements a shortcut they believe is benign but actually opens a route for attack. Another may simply forget everything they were taught in security training. Then there is the employee who is more focused on their next gig than on maintaining security practices at a firm they are leaving.
One answer to such risks, writes features editor Fahmida Y. Rashid, is zero trust. Though it sounds cynical, the practice protects organizations from human error. Citing Darktrace threat analyst Toby Lewis, Rashid explains:
“Zero trust treats every connection and action as suspicious. There are signals to verify, such as the device being used, the time of the day, and the order of applications being accessed. If the user is straying outside what’s expected, it triggers an investigation, even if the activity is originating from inside the environment. … In a zero-trust organization, it would be harder for insiders to act badly, Lewis notes. By managing identity, security teams understand who the users are and determine what ‘normal’ looks like. This way, they can assess the level of risk for each person and get a sense of when to ask for more information.”
Network segmentation is the other suggestion. We learn:
“If the network has been divided into different compartments, then users have to authenticate each time they cross into a new area. Different parts of the network can be carved out based on risk and where sensitive data is stored. ‘Each part of your network should be behind its own set of locked doors,’ Lewis says. ‘You could only cross this barrier if you are a trusted person.’”
In an ideal world, workers would reliably adhere to best practices and security teams would have no reason to track employees’ work patterns. But since we are stuck in this imperfect world, companies must do what they can to guard against human imperfection.
Cynthia Murrell, March 10, 2022
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