Why CEO’s Shouldn’t Ignore the Human Factor in Cyber Security in Kenya

In this era and with the world COVID pandemic, the majority of CEO’s are still taking cyber security requirements too lightly leading to serious consequences. The human element is still playing the biggest role in rendering most businesses vulnerable to cyber security threats and attacks. A recent study conducted by Kaspersky Lab on over 5,000 businesses around the globe revealed that about 52% (which is more than half) of businesses believe they are at risk from within. This is to say, the staff, either intentionally or unintentionally through acts of carelessness or lack of knowledge put the businesses they work for at great risk of cyber-related threats. 

Kenya is not exceptional when it comes to cyber risks, therefore CEO’s ought to be aware of how easy it is for employees or the human factor to impact a company’s security by exposing the companies to security breaches. On many occasions, the same employees can be used as the attack vectors by being careless or uninformed hence becoming prone to threats such as phishing and social engineering since they do not know how to spot the difference between a legitimate application or fake one to lure them opening a malicious malware or virus application.

It is very important for businesses not to consider policies alone as a way of covering cyber-related risks since not all policies are always followed. CEO’s therefore should consider solutions that provide more visibility and centralized security management of corporate networks, regular employee awareness training on cyber security so that they can be conscious of the impacts if they are ignoring the risk, they are exposing the company by their null or negative actions to safeguard the company data.

Any individual with access to an organization’s systems and data is a potential vulnerability. Most if not all of the high-profile corporate security incidents and breaches involve a human error or intentional, malicious actions. This is because many of them are usually successful cyber-attacks from external attackers who take advantage of the human weaknesses to lure insiders within organizations to provide them with access to sensitive company information. 

Below are the Human Factor Strategies to consider for your organization

1. Cyber workforce development:  Build a cyber workforce, capable of rising to the challenge of cyber security through recruiting and retaining efforts. 
2. Training and awareness: Take a fresh look at information security training & awareness efforts; provide immersive learning opportunities to reinforce behavior change.
3. Stakeholder and leadership engagement: Set up partnerships with leadership across organizations and ensure that leadership engages and supports cyber security programs.
4. Finance Security initiatives: Organizations must also adopt more comprehensive strategies and increase their cyber security budgets. Of most importance is the adoption of threat intelligence which is not only based on technology but also human expertise. Threat intelligence systems usually automate the process of identifying important attacks out of vast data, tracking events as they occur with a real-time analysis that monitors the behavior of software, systems, and the human factory to detect a malicious incident. All this has to be planned with a budget in mind.

Do you need a cyber security training or the implementation of threat intelligence systems? 

Call East African Data Handlers today ( +254 0711 051 000) remember your employees urgently need an online cyber security training to protect themselves and the company data against any cyber-attacks. Remember by making employees aware of security threats, how they might present, and what procedures to follow when a threat is identified, you‘re indeed strengthening the most vulnerable links in the chain.

Did you know that Threat Intelligence also enables organizations to draw on evidence-based knowledge, including but not limited to the context, mechanisms, indicators, implications, and actionable advice, about an existing or emerging menace or hazard? Since the event is logged, Threat Intelligence platforms provide forensic data that can be used to conduct the root cause analysis by determining the patterns, predict possible attacks and attack vectors, and help to prevent future attacks.

Did you recently experience a data breach? Get in touch with us today so that we can help you discover when, how, who, and why the breach was successful.  Call now ( +254 0711 051 000) 

The most effective strategy is therefore to recreate an actual working environment and putting employees amid a very real cyber-attack that they must defend against.