{"id":11772,"date":"2025-06-24T19:28:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colemandev.directivesites.com\/your-users-are-likely-your-biggest-security-threat-but-you-can-fix-that\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T19:42:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T19:42:01","slug":"your-users-are-likely-your-biggest-security-threat-but-you-can-fix-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/?p=11772","title":{"rendered":"Your Users Are Likely Your Biggest Security Threat, But You Can Fix That"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n\"Your
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Believe it or not, if you were to rank your business\u2019 greatest threats, risk factors, and vulnerabilities, your users would most likely belong somewhere toward the top. Human error is a big challenge to your security simply because cybercriminals understand that your employees are, in fact, human and will, in fact, make mistakes.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explore how cyberattacks exploit this tendency and how you can better protect your business from the ramifications.<\/p>\n

What Makes Human Beings Such a Security Liability?<\/h2>\n

\u201cTo err is human; to forgive, divine.\u201d \u2014 Alexander Pope<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, since Pope wrote the poem from which this quote originated in 1711, it\u2019s extremely unlikely he had any idea of just how badly humans can err in terms of information technology and the ramifications this would have on the businesses that employ them.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of factors that lead to people making mistakes. Life is complicated for most people, both in the office and out. People can be stressed, regardless of whether that\u2019s due to office politics or circumstances at home. Maybe they didn\u2019t get a good night\u2019s sleep on a given day. Maybe they have a loved one who\u2019s going through it. Maybe they feel they\u2019re not performing in their role and fear the repercussions.<\/p>\n

Some mistakes are caused by sheer laziness\u2026 although it can be dangerously easy to conflate \u201claziness\u201d with overwhelm and burnout in the office. Plus, the path of least resistance almost always looks and feels like the better option, especially when time is a factor.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason, these mistakes can vary wildly in severity, from minor operational setbacks to major, catastrophic disasters. Unfortunately, many of these repercussions revolve around your business\u2019 security.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the unfortunate fact that many people don\u2019t understand how to stay secure online. Things have certainly gotten a lot better over the past few years. However, the average person still doesn\u2019t typically bring the necessary knowledge of cybersecurity, the intention to apply it, and the practical application of best practices that do so, all in a way that combines into the security your business requires. Regardless of which element of this equation is missing, it makes it far easier for mistakes to be made.<\/p>\n

We also need to acknowledge that not all businesses do a great job of training their employees to be secure. Sometimes, training just doesn\u2019t happen, or it doesn\u2019t happen often or thoroughly enough to actually identify and correct insecure behaviors.<\/p>\n

Cybercriminals Love How this Fact Makes their Efforts Easier<\/h3>\n

Unfortunately, human error makes cybercrime a numbers game for many. If a cybercriminal sends out enough hooks, they\u2019ll eventually catch something.<\/strong> Many phishing attacks that are so obviously phishing attacks are actually an attempt to identify who will most likely fall for higher-value scams. If someone is willing to consider sending money to an obscure member of a foreign country\u2019s nobility, they\u2019re much more likely to believe that Microsoft support needs their password and credit card information to resolve a previously unknown issue.<\/p>\n

Obviously, these mistakes aren\u2019t something you want happening in your own business.<\/p>\n

How Can a Business Turn Its Team into a Cybersecurity Asset?<\/h2>\n

If you want your team to protect your business and its data rather than leaving it vulnerable, a few things must happen. First, you need to understand that there will never be perfect cybersecurity simply because everyone can make any of the mistakes we reviewed here. While perfection is the ideal you want to strive for, it is unattainable, so you must have business continuity plans and preparations in place to protect you.<\/p>\n

To promote your organizational security behaviors, you must make cultural changes to your business so that security is at the root of everything. Engage your team in the process, and be sure to explain security in terms they understand and are pertinent to them. You need to take the lead in setting the standard and promoting it at every opportunity, striking that critical balance as you actively encourage secure behaviors so you don\u2019t risk alienating your team from the process.<\/p>\n

This can be accomplished by reducing as much friction from the cybersecurity process as possible, implementing straightforward standards, and remaining transparent about why the \u201cobstacles\u201d you have in place exist. It also helps to reward adherence to security policies over punishing mistakes or oversights and repeating training to correct insecure behaviors moving forward.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re Here to Help Businesses Accomplish This Organizational Security<\/h3>\n

Reach out to us for our assistance! We can provide the tools you need to establish cybersecurity and help you develop the culture to utilize them. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, if you were to rank your business\u2019 greatest threats, risk factors, and vulnerabilities, your users would most likely belong somewhere toward the top. Human error is a big challenge to your security simply because cybercriminals understand that your employees are, in fact, human and will, in fact, make mistakes. Let\u2019s explore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,31,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hackers","category-security","category-users"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11987,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11772\/revisions\/11987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/colemantechnologies.directivesites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}