Human Risk Management

Human risk management can be defined as the process of identifying, mitigating and addressing possible cyber security risks that can be caused by human error. The error in this case can be either intentional or unintentional. The core idea behind HRM is that people are both the first line of defense and also a point of vulnerability.

HRM often follows a 3 step approach to tackle risks arising from human error:

• Identify all possible human-related risks that can occur in the organization
• Evaluate and recognize the motivations, fears and other factors behind why employees act the way they do
• Make employees aware of the consequences of their actions and impart corrective actions to ensure issues are addressed

Here are a few KPIs you can use to measure human risk:

• Phishing simulation open and click rates
• Increase or decrease in incident reporting rates
• Time taken to recognize and report suspected cyber incidents
• Role-based or department-based risk scores
• Increase or reduction in repeated risky behaviors post-awareness training or nudges
• Adherence to organizational security policies

Human risk is defined as the negative outcomes triggered by an individual's behavior. In cyber security, this occurs when people make decisions, intentionally or unintentionally, that can jeopardize an organization's security posture. These decisions are mostly motivated by psychological factors like motivation, fear, reward, and personal experiences. Almost 95% of breaches occur due to human risk, which is why being the first line of defense also means it is an often-targeted vulnerability.

AI-based human risk management means using AI to predict and prevent risky human behaviors. Usually, traditional human risk management approaches fixes identified risks. However, AI tools are always monitoring in real time to identify patterns or trends of risky behavior and automatically push solutions to fix them before they materialize. It works by using a predictive intelligence framework built by analyzing threat patterns and human behavior to correctly point out risks. Corrective actions are then suggested, which is then approved through human oversight.

Continuous human risk reduction is an ongoing activity to continuously monitor human risks and apply solutions immediately, instead of trying to adopt a single-solution fix. In the case of human risk, this involves the following:

• Real-time monitoring of employee behavior and issuing corrective action as soon as a risk is spotted
• Adapting organizational security rules to match real-world employee work behavior so risky users are provided with tighter guardrails, minimizing the chance for errors
• Keeping track of reduced human risks to see if the human risk reduction strategies are actually working as expected