Lens

Stephen Cavey of Ground Labs discusses the importance of a human-centric approach to data security and how that would benefit enterprise security strategy.

No one is entirely safe from cybersecurity threats — but this means everyone has a role to play, whether implementing best practices in their daily lives, educating customers and employees, or ensuring that they are protecting users’ sensitive data to the best of their ability. This mounting pressure to protect data and people demands that companies approach cybersecurity from a bottom-up, human-focused angle to mobilize support from executives, employees, and users. Given the tremendous variety and frequency of possible threats, automation is necessary to protect data at scale. If automated security tools are self-sufficient and effectively omniscient, the reasoning might go, then why would humans need to make much of an effort to keep data safe? In the C-suite, this means knowing where all data is stored since companies can’t protect data they don’t know exists; if data is a stand-in for a person, then not knowing the location of all data is equivalent to leaving those people behind. It may be more motivating to re-examine the problem from a human angle; a security slip-up can hurt many people if thieves steal data and commit identity fraud. As a result, the human angle of security impacts employees in two ways. It exists to protect people’s safety and the ability to control what they put out about themselves. But the typical reaction of “It won’t happen to me” is often insufficient to spark true vigilance. Yet, a human-centric approach to improving cybersecurity is more important than ever. This year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month focused on the role everyone – including executives, cybersecurity professionals, and consumers – plays in keeping data safe from harm. A human-centric approach to improving cybersecurity is more important than ever.