Human Error Continues to Dominate Cybersecurity Challenges: Insights from Nuspire and Verizon

From a new report from Nuspire, a Michigan-based MSP.   The ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape and end-user error and education remain the biggest challenges for CISOs & IT Decision Makers, with end-users accounting for much of their worries, specifically malware/ ransomware, phishing, and cloud security breaches.”

Some stats from the report.

• Ten percent of CISOs and IT Decision Makers manage all their cybersecurity needs in-house.
• 3 in 5 CISOs or IT decision-makers have seen their cybersecurity budgets increase this year, despite widespread concerns about a recession or economic slowdown

Verizon has released its annual Data Breach report, which is generally one of the most comprehensive rundowns of breaches and incidents in a one-year period.

Nearly three-quarters of breaches involve humans doing something wrong, whether it was falling for a phishing email or errors or — less a mess-up and more about the insider threat — misusing their access to computer systems.    That number generally fluctuates between about 74 and 80 percent annually.    Eighty-three percent of breaches involved external forces.  

Ransomware incidents held steady at 24 percent of breaches, Verizon found. It was, however, everywhere: 91 percent of industries had ransomware as one of the top issues they dealt with over the 12 months.

I also want to highlight a resource out this week from CISA – the Guide to Securing Remote Access Software.  Specific guidance for MSPs and IT Admins is included, and the list of private partners includes well-known names in the MSP space, including CNWR, ConnectWise, Huntress, and N-Able.  

I’m going to zero in on the human element.    Remember, trying to solve a human problem with technology is a recipe for disaster.     More tools are not the solution, especially when the humans within the organization’s walls are a risk vector.

Keep that in mind as you iterate on your cybersecurity solutions.