Write Up- The Human Factor in Cybersecurity
Max Amici
10/17/2021
After being exposed to two viewpoints regarding human contribution to cyber threats, it has made me realize that for the most part cyber threats are created and amplified by humans themselves. In Capone’s article about the impact of human behavior on cybersecurity, he talked about his view that cybersecurity should be fully automated since cyber threats come to be in the first place because of human error and points out that it is human nature to want to take short cuts which leads to shortcomings in cybersecurity. He suggests that in order to keep a safe cyber world we must protect everything instead of letting people pick and choose exactly the files they want to protect, we should just protect them all. To add to these takes that Capone has, the other article assigned explained how human psychology is one of the biggest weapons behind cyber-attacks because at least around half of all cyber threats rely on human interaction in order to be a successful attack. I think that these two articles had information to complement the other well and it has given me a new insight into the cybersecurity world.
Regarding the tradeoff between training and additional technology, while on a limited budget there is only so many resources available to use it is somewhat difficult to pinpoint how to balance the two. I think that no matter what you cannot let the additional technology surpass the amount of training, this is because what good is the additional technology if nobody has the means to maintain or operate it? Also, this way you shouldn’t have any problems with the technology that is being worked with on the human side as they should be given appropriate training without there being additional technology that they are unfamiliar with and do not know how to deal with.
References:
Why Is Cyber Security About Human Behavior? (p.1-5)