What is the human factor in cybersecurity?
The human factor in cybersecurity refers to the ways in which human behavior and actions can create or reduce cybersecurity risks within an organization. Even though organizations use firewalls, encryption, antivirus, multifactor authentication (MFA), and other technical controls, people still interact with these systems, which can leave vulnerabilities unnoticed and create risk.
According to Adaptive Security (2026), approximately 62% of confirmed incidents identified in Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) involved a non-malicious human element, such as falling victim to a phishing attack or making a critical misconfiguration error.
Two major examples of the human factor in cybersecurity include falling victim to social engineering/phishing attacks and weak passwords or credential misuse.
Since cybersecurity depends heavily on human decision-making, organizations must address human-related risks through effective training, security policies, and proper communication.
How does human behavior contribute to cybersecurity vulnerabilities?
Human behavior can contribute to cybersecurity vulnerabilities or incidents in many ways. Human behavior can introduce vulnerabilities because employees constantly have to operate under pressure; they can make mistakes; some have different levels of cybersecurity knowledge; they respond to authority and urgency; they may prioritize completing their job; and they may take shortcuts when security procedures seem inconvenient.
Another human behavior that can contribute to cybersecurity vulnerability is work context. A NIST study found that people’s work context affects how they interpret phishing emails. For example, some employees may worry more about not responding to a legitimate-looking email, while others may be more concerned about the possible consequences of clicking a suspicious link (Greene et al., 2018).
This shows that human error isn’t necessarily caused by employees simply being uninformed. Their behavior can be influenced by the context in which they are making a decision.
Examples of human error
Two examples of cybersecurity risks related to human actions are phishing and social engineering attacks, and weak passwords and credential misuse.
Phishing and social engineering involve manipulating people into clicking malicious links, revealing credentials, transferring money, providing sensitive information, and more (ENISA, 2024). Social engineering uses psychology to persuade victims. Some examples include authority by pretending to be an executive, scarcity by creating a sense of urgency, and liking by complimenting or showing shared interests. These techniques usually work because they exploit normal human tendencies, such as trusting authorities, responding to urgency, and building rapport with others (Bullée et al., 2018).
On the other hand, weak passwords and credential misuse represent a different type of human behavior that can lead to cybersecurity risks. Examples include reusing passwords across accounts, using predictable passwords, sharing credentials, and failing to protect credentials. According to Langlois (2025), a review of the 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report indicated that credential abuse was one of the leading attack vectors, accounting for 22% of breaches in its dataset.
Many factors contribute to these behaviors, such as convenience, difficulty remembering multiple passwords, and believing that a security incident won’t happen to them.
How organizations can reduce risks
Organizations can reduce human-related cybersecurity risks through training, policies, communication, and organizational culture. According to NIST 2024 SP 800-50 Rev. 1, training should be ongoing rather than once a year, relevant to employees’ actual responsibilities, practical, and updated as threats change. They also present cybersecurity learning as an ongoing organizational process and advise on measuring and improving behavior.
As important as training is, it is not enough on its own. Organizations should implement policies and technical controls that make secure behavior easier by using MFA, password managers, access controls, and least privilege. Communication is also crucial. Employees who are unsure if an email is legitimate need a way to ask without fearing punishment. Finally, organizational culture plays an important role. A 2025 review of 59 studies concluded that cybersecurity culture should not be viewed solely as a technical issue and emphasized the importance of management involvement, leadership modeling, and organizational support (Sutton & Tompson, 2025).
Conclusion
Humans are an integral part of cybersecurity, both as potential sources of risk and as an important part of an organization’s defense. However, human nature can create cybersecurity risks when people are influenced by factors such as time pressure, convenience, or social manipulation. Risks such as phishing and password weakness are examples of human behavior that lead to possible attacks. To lower these risks, we should recognize that human error is inevitable; however, organizations should take steps to lower these risks as much as possible. Organizations can reduce the impact by implementing technical controls, effective training, clear communication, and a strong cybersecurity culture.
