It's often difficult to fully appreciate the impact of a successful cyberattack.
Other consequences aren't so obvious - from a loss of customer trust and potential business to stolen data that may surface as part of another cyberattack years later.
These are all elements of a cyberattack's impact chain, which starts with the initial breach and frequently has no clear endpoint.
Cyberattacks have an array of potential causes and effects.
Whether an employee falls for a phishing email or hackers crack a password, a single vulnerability can cause a devastating cyberattack that severely disrupts operations and customer experiences.
By explaining the impact chain of potential cyberattacks with cybersecurity awareness training, CISOs and other security leaders will help employees understand what's at risk and how important they are to keeping the organization safe.
The Wide-Ranging Consequences of Cyberattacks In September, MGM Resorts announced that it had been targeted by a cyberattack that knocked out websites for many of its properties, shut down its booking system and disrupted many customer-facing operations - from digital room keys to ATMs and slot machines.
This is yet another powerful reminder that cyberattacks can have a crippling impact on everything from customer experiences and internal processes to the bottom line.
IBM reports that employee training is among the most effective ways to reduce the financial impact of a cyberattack - more so than cybersecurity insurance, threat intelligence or even encryption.
Employees pose significant risks at every link of the cyberattack impact chain - just as training reduces the total costs of data breaches, a security skills shortage is a major factor in increasing these costs.
Building these skills requires organization-wide training, which adapts to changing circumstances, focuses on each employee's unique psychological profile, and maintains engagement with highly relevant and entertaining content.
Understanding the Entire Cyberattack Impact Chain There are two ways to assess the cyberattack impact chain: Causes and effects.
To build stakeholder support for CSAT, CISOs have to show the board how much damage cyberattacks are capable of causing.
CSAT content must inform employees about the effects of cyberattacks to help them understand the risks companies face.
It's even more important for company leaders and employees to have a firm grasp on the causes of cyberattacks.
Cybercriminals are experts at exploiting employees' psychological vulnerabilities - particularly fear, obedience, craving, opportunity, sociableness, urgency and curiosity - to steal money and credentials, break into secure systems and launch cyberattacks.
Psychological susceptibilities like these are critical links in the cyberattack impact chain, so they must be addressed with consistent and effective CSAT. It isn't enough for CISOs and other company leaders to inform employees about the most urgent cyberthreats they face and hope for the best.
Each employee's specific behavioral patterns must be addressed; content should be clearly connected to employees' individual roles, the tactics cybercriminals deploy and the most effective defense mechanisms; and companies should consistently track employee performance and conduct organization-wide assessments of their cybersecurity readiness.
When companies focus on the full cyberattack impact chain, they will have a better understanding of why cyberattacks succeed and what risks they pose.
While this awareness helps CISOs, company leaders, and employees prepare for the potential aftermath of a cyberattack, it serves a more fundamental purpose: It stops cyberattacks from succeeding in the first place.
This Cyber News was published on securityboulevard.com. Publication date: Wed, 06 Dec 2023 14:43:06 +0000