Understanding Cognitive Biases: Enhancing Cybersecurity by Addressing Human Error

Understanding cognitive biases—what makes us tick and click—is critical to cybersecurity. Human error is the biggest risk factor for any organization’s cybersecurity, with 82% of all data breaches resulting from human mistakes. Despite this, many organizations lack a program to protect the human attack surface. While security teams deploy technologies to safeguard networks, endpoints, email, web, and cloud apps, they often overlook the human element.

The Human Attack Surface

Regardless of their tech savviness, people can be easily duped by scams due to familiarity and immediacy factors exploited by hackers. Cybersecurity is not just a technological challenge; it’s increasingly a social and behavioral one. According to Willis Towers Watson, human actions primarily cause cyber breaches. Employees may mistakenly disclose account information or fall for phishing attacks, allowing data to leak through legitimate channels and compromising security. This type of social engineering easily bypasses technology barriers.

The Psychology of Cyber Attacks

Hackers have become adept at launching specialized attacks targeting specific employees. These attacks exploit employees’ fears, hopes, and biases to access data. Understanding how hackers work enables companies to identify potential biases and deliver training that effectively changes behaviors.

How Hackers Exploit Cognitive Biases

The human mind subconsciously takes mental shortcuts, known as cognitive biases, to preserve cognitive resources. These biases influence how we think, behave, and make decisions. Hackers exploit these biases to sway decisions based on misleading information or false generalizations.

Common biases hackers exploit include:

1. Authority Bias: Trusting authority figures

2. Anchoring: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information

3. Availability Heuristic: Overestimating the importance of information readily available

4. Bandwagon Effect: Doing something because others are doing it

5. Confirmation Bias: Seeking out information that confirms preexisting beliefs

6. Halo Effect: Judging something based on one positive trait

7. Negativity Bias: Focusing more on negative information

8. Scarcity: Perceiving something as more valuable when it is scarce

9. Urgency: Feeling the need to act quickly without due consideration

Hackers use these biases to entice employees to click on fraudulent links or share sensitive data.

Mitigating Human Error Through Training

Organizations can counteract these biases by learning from cognitive psychology. In-the-moment reminders about secure behavior, like password strength meters, help reinforce good habits. Psychological studies show that consistent training leads to long-term behavior change. The best approach to changing employee behavior is to apply knowledge at the right moments.

Real-Time Solutions and Personalized Coaching

Organizations should communicate solutions to new threats in real-time to prevent breaches. Personalized coaching and guidance are effective ways to improve an organization’s security posture. Guardian Computer’s security awareness training provides effective programs to mitigate human error by teaching employees digital hygiene basics. Our training programs give employees practice in applying this knowledge and regularly revisiting these topics.