The BIGGEST THREAT to your cyber security is your EMPLOYEES
According to historical claim data analyzed by Willis Towers Watson, 90% of all cyber security claims stemmed from some type of employee error or behavior. If you think your organization couldn't possible fall victim to a cyber attach, you're wrong. Cyber attacks can happen to any business. Consider the following examples.
Example #1: Equifax Data Breach
The 2017 Equifax data breach, which exposed the sensitive personal information of nearly 146 million Americans happened because of a mistake by a single employee, according to the company's former chief executive, Richard F. Smith. Smith told members of Congress that an individual in the technology department failed to heed security warnings and did not ensure the implementation of software fixes that would have prevented to breach. While the total cost of the breach has yet to be totaled, the sheer number of individuals affected demonstrates the need for employee cyber awareness and training.
Example #2: Snapchat Data Breach
In February 2016, Snapchat fell victim to a type of phishing scan known as a whaling attack. In the attach, a social engineer with criminal intent posed as CEO Evan Spiegel and sent an email to someone in the social network's payroll deparment. As a result, the personal protected info of some 700 employees was released.
Example #3: Chipotle Data Breach
In 2017, a group of cyber criminals in Easter Europe sent out emails with malware to Chipotle staff. Untrained staff members clicked on the fake emails and inadvertently enabled the hackers to compromise the point-of-sale systems at a majority of Chipotle locatios. The hackers were then able to obtain the credit card data of millions of people.
Summary:
As you can see, employee error or behavior was to blame in these threee high-profile cyber attachs. The only way to prevent yoru organization from failling to the same fate is to take the proper steps to educate your employees on cyber security.
