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Backing the human firewall for better protection

Despite the easing of lockdown regulations, working from home remains a business necessity for many people. And this continues to present companies with new forms of cybersecurity risks that take advantage of ongoing market fluxes and uncertainty. This is where the concept of the human firewall becomes critically important.

At its most basic, a firewall is a computer network security system that restricts Internet traffic in, out, or within a private network. A human firewall, on the other hand, combines security awareness and training solutions to deliver a comprehensive way for organisations to protect all levels of their structure, regardless of where people are working from. Essentially, this concept centres on continued employee awareness training to ensure that remote workers understand best practice when it comes to cybersecurity.

This training is not a once-off process but reflects evolving attack perimeters, especially given how a distributed work environment has created new vectors which malicious users can exploit. So, beyond investing in comprehensive anti-virus and endpoint protection software, creating awareness about keeping family members away from work devices and ensuring the organisational virtual private network (VPN) used is as strong as possible, companies must commit to user education across all levels of the business, to minimise their employees posing unnecessary cyber-related risks to the business. Whether it is C-suite executives, a salesperson, an administrative staff member, or the receptionist, consistent training must form an integral part of any company’s cybersecurity strategy.

A security aware culture

At a time when artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and robotic process automation (RPA) are becoming part of the norm with employees reskilling and upskilling themselves for a digitally-led environment, so too must this skill set expand to incorporate cybersecurity. It is all about minimising human error, understanding how malware such as ransomware and phishing attacks perpetrate the company network and being vigilant of social engineering tactics when using remote devices.

After all, the best cybersecurity solutions in the world mean little if an employee still clicks on a malicious email, submits sensitive data on a spoofed website and the like. Training must also be adapted to the skill set, knowledge and responsibilities of individual employees.

The content must reflect the current threat landscape and provide guidance on likely future scenarios. It is especially important for smaller businesses to create a security aware culture when employees are working from home and not inside the relative safety of the corporate network. These companies can ill-afford a data breach which could potentially result in significant financial damage and possibly even business closure.

Even though cybersecurity policies must be updated as a matter of course, the reality is that employees must practically understand what they can and cannot do especially when working remotely. Theory is important, but the rapidly evolving threat landscape means that there should be ongoing updates to knowledge bases that include documentation, online materials, email updates and the like.

The new normal is here to stay for the foreseeable future. It is up to the companies themselves to maintain their cybersecurity awareness to safeguard their most important assets.

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