Transforming Security Efficiency through Human-Focused Cybersecurity: The Role of Empathetic Cyberdefense
Transforming Security Efficiency through Human-Focused Cybersecurity: The Role of Empathetic Cyberdefense
Seemant Sehgal serves as the Founder & CEO of BreachLock Inc., a pioneer in the realm of Continuous Attack Surface Discovery and Penetration Testing as a Service.
In today's environment, the importance of human-led security testing and human-centric cybersecurity (HCC) cannot be overstated. Human-led security testing capitalizes on the insight and intuition of skilled cybersecurity professionals, offering an adaptability and context that automated tools can't match. On the other hand, HCC emphasizes creating processes and products that meet user behaviors and needs, recognizing that usability plays a crucial role in real-world security.
As organizations grapple with the need for both agility and precision, integrating these human-centered approaches with automation and data analytics can lead to faster, more informed decision-making and a more comprehensive defense strategy. However, these methods are often used in isolation, resulting in a fragmented security strategy.
The Three Pillars of a Human-Centric Security Framework
To fully realize the potential of these approaches, it's essential to recognize their unique value in modern cybersecurity. Let's delve into each approach:
Pillar 1: Human-Centric Cybersecurity (HCC)
Introduced by NIST and highlighted in the White House's "Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan" for December 2023, HCC centers security around end-users by designing solutions that accommodate real-world behaviors and limitations.
Traditional security tools are often complicated and disruptive, leading users to bypass them. HCC aims to minimize risky behaviors by integrating security solutions into daily workflows, placing a strong emphasis on usability, empowering users with secure measures that are intuitive and accessible, and fostering a security culture that aligns with daily operations and user behavior.
When users view security as part of their routine, they are more likely to adhere to protocols, allowing security teams to trust that defenses are intact.
Pillar 2: Human-Led Security Testing
Complementing HCC, human-led security testing is usually performed by experienced penetration testers, ethical hackers, and red teamers. These experts can identify subtle vulnerabilities and approach threats from an attacker's perspective, helping organizations stay one step ahead.
Unlike automated tools, human-led testing retains its core functionality, adapting to new threats and techniques, and tailoring strategies to respond to sophisticated attacks. Human expertise is at the forefront, ensuring that organizations benefit from the singular capabilities and critical thinking skills that only humans can provide.
Pillar 3: Technology—Automation and Data Analytics
To bridge the gap between these human-centric methods, automation and data analytics provide the needed scalability and speed to address today's fast-paced threat environment. Automation handles repetitive tasks and processes large data sets, allowing human experts to focus on more complex issues.
When integrated with human-led testing, automation offers continuous monitoring and swift remediation, while data analytics help security practitioners make informed decisions supported by real-time threat intelligence. By combining automation with human-led and human-centric security practices, organizations can achieve a proactive security stance that is scalable, swift, data-driven, and user-focused.
Connecting Humans, Technology, and Data
By harmonizing user-focused design, human expertise, and technology, enterprises can place people at the core of their security strategy, leveraging human ingenuity, empowering users, and using automation to strengthen efforts.
The HCC approach, projected to be adopted by half of large enterprises by 2027 (Gartner), fosters a proactive security culture, equipping employees with the tools to engage with protocols more effectively.
Key aspects of HCC strategies—also referred to as security behavior and culture programs (SBCPs)—include threat simulations, the addition of automation and analytics to support secure choices, rewarding incident reporting, and tracking program impact. Nearly half of HCC-focused companies already implement these measures.
Conclusion
To build a truly resilient cybersecurity framework, enterprises must integrate a human-centered approach combining human-led testing, threat simulations, and technology-driven efficiency through automation and analytics.
Human expertise reveals emerging attack tactics, while simulations enable employees to respond instinctively to threats, making each interaction a proactive defense measure. Regular human-led assessments ensure that security strategies remain aligned with emerging threats and offer valuable insights for targeted simulations, empowering employees to navigate cyber risks confidently.
Automation and analytics amplify these efforts, tracking behaviors, pinpointing vulnerabilities, and supporting data-driven improvements across the organization. By linking these approaches, companies make security a shared responsibility and foster a vigilant, forward-thinking security environment.
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Seemant Sehgal, the founder and CEO of BreachLock Inc., could benefit from understanding the importance of integrating human-centric approaches like human-led security testing and Human-Centric Cybersecurity (HCC) with automation and data analytics to create a more comprehensive defense strategy.
As the adoption of HCC strategies, such as threat simulations and rewarding incident reporting, increases among enterprises, Seemant Sehgal might consider incorporating these methods into BreachLock's offerings to better serve clients by providing a more proactive, user-focused security framework.