The Human Firewall: Even with AI, people are still the last line of defense in cyber security
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Even with the huge arsenal of today cyber security Tools and AI-improved threat detection, attackers continue to succeed because the technology fails, but because the human link in the defensive chain remains exposed. Cyber criminals almost always take the path of the least resistance to perform a violation, which often means that they focus on people instead of a system.
According to McKinsey, a stunning 91% of cyber attacks have less to do with technology, and more to do with manipulating and taking advantage of human behavior. In other words, despite the fact that technologies such as AI with Break-Neck speed improve, cyber criminals are still more likely to hack people than machines.
This makes sense from the perspective of a cyber criminal. It is the path of the least resistance. Why spend sources hacking a high-tech, ai-secured front door when there is an open window at the back? This is not news for CISOs, according to an IBM survey from 2024, almost three-quarters (74%) now identify human vulnerability as their top safety risk. They are aware of the open window and now they try to secure it.
Senior Manager, Forerunners Engineering in one identity.
Easier said than done
However, that is easier said than done. Whether it is a well-timed phishing-e-mail, a spabbled call, a deepfake video or a spurf of push reports of authentic appearing that are designed to wear out the opinion of a user, attackers adapt faster than defenses.
The reality is that while security sellers race to surpass attackers with smarter algorithms and stricter controls, the tactics that lead most reliable to fractions, are psychological, not technical. Threat actors exploit trust, fatigue, social norms and behavioral fasting tactics much more subtle and more effective than brutal-force code.
It is no lack of technology that makes organizations vulnerable to these techniques, it is a lack of coordination between those tools and the way in which people actually think and operate. In fast, high -pressure environments, staff Do not keep the bandwidth to reconsider each request or to take a closer look at each.
They rely on instincts, familiarity and patterns that they have learned to trust. But those very instincts are some attackers running, running help desk Tickets in access operations, or raided CFOs in several millions of dollars. While generative AI is accelerating the realism and reach of these tactics, organizations are confronted with a critical question: not just how they can keep the bad actors out, but how they can better rest their people inside. Because when infringements hang on human decisions, cyber security is not just a technological issue – it is a human.
Trust, bias and psychology of infringements of safety
Human behavior is a vulnerability, but it is also a predictable pattern. Our brains are wired for efficiency, no control, making us remarkably easy to manipulate under the right circumstances. Attackers know this and design their exploits accordingly. They play on urgency to achieve caution, act as the authority figures to disarming skepticism and dripping small requests to activate the consistency bias. These tactics are ruthlessly calculated and they do not work because people are careless, but because they are human.
At the beginning of 2024, a financial employee was misled at a company in Hong Kong to transfer $ 25 million after attending a video call with what seemed to be the CFO and other colleagues from the company a convincing AI-generated deepfake. The attackers used publicly available images to clone faces and voices, creating a seamless illusion that exploited trust and familiar with devastating effect.
The eye opening area is that these DeepFake tools are now immediately available. Modern social engineering is not dependent on obvious red flags. The e -mails are not littered with typing errors, and the imitations do not sound robotic. Thanks to generative AI, DeepFake technology and access to enormous training data, attackers can now create incredibly convincing personas that reflect the tone, behavior and language of trusted colleagues. In this environment, even the most well -trained employee can fall victim without error.
Heuristics – mental shortcuts – are often exploited by attackers who know they should look for. “Authority bias” leads to people following instructions from observed leaders, such as a spoofed e -mail from a CEO. The “scarcity principle” increases pressure by creating false urgency, giving employees the feeling that they must act immediately.
And “reciprocity bias” plays someone an apparently benign gesture based on social social instincts-Zodra, they rather respond to a follow-up request, even if it is malignant. What is so often like an judgment in judgment is often only an expected outcome of cognitive overload and the common, daily use of Heuristics.
Where policy is psychology
Traditional strategies for identity and access management (IAM) assume that users will behave predictably and rationally – that they will investigate each promptly, ask every deviation and follow the policy according to the letter. But the reality within most organizations is much messier. People work quickly, constantly change contexts and are bombed with reports, tasks and requests.
If security checks feel too rigid or stressful, users find temporary solutions. If the instructions are too frequent, they are ignored. This is how good policy is undermined – not out of negligence, but because the design of the system clashes with the psychology of its users. Good security mechanisms may not add friction; They must seamlessly lead users to better choices.
Applying principles such as Zero Trust, the least privilege and just-in-time access can dramatically reduce exposure, but only if they are implemented in ways that take into account cognitive loads and context. Automation can help here: access to and withdrawing based on dynamic risk signals, time of day, or rolling changes without users constantly having to make an opinion.
Well done, Identity management is an invisible safety net, which quietly adjusts in the background, instead of demanding constant interaction. People cannot be removed from the loop, but they must be freed from the burden to catch what the system should already detect.
Build a safety culture
Technology can enforce access policy, but culture determines whether people follow them. Building a safe organization must be more than just enforcing compliance. That starts with security training that goes beyond phishing exercises and password Hygiene to tackle how people actually think and respond under pressure. Employees must recognize their own cognitive prejudices, understand how they are the target and feel empowered – not punished – for delaying and asking questions.
Equally important is the removal of unnecessary friction. When access controls are intuitive, context conscious and at least disruptive, users have the chance of handling them well. Rolls-based and attributes-based access models, combined with just-in-time permissions, help to reduce overprovisioning without creating frustrating bottlenecks in the form of pop-ups and interruptions. In other words, modern IAM systems must support employees and enable them instead of constantly let hoops jump to get from one app or window to another.
The human firewall is not going anywhere
The biggest collection meals here is that cyber security is not only a test of systems, AI-driven or non-it is a test of people. The human firewall is perhaps the largest weakness of an organization, but with the right tools and the policy it can become the greatest strength. Our goal should not be to eliminate human mistakes or change the innate nature of people, but to design identity systems that make safe behavior the standard – easy, intuitive and frictionless.
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This article is produced as part of the TechRadarpro expert insight channel, where today we have the best and smartest spirits in the technology industry. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarpro or Future PLC. If you are interested in contributing to find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-techradar-pro
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