Cybersecurity is constantly evolving. As new threats emerge and the IT landscape expands, organizations continue to add new layers to their defenses. Security strategies often rely on technology to fortify the network, perimeter, applications, and other components of the IT infrastructure. This technology-centric approach, however, misses one critical weakness that cybercriminals consistently exploit: people.

Whether they act carelessly or make a mistake, your employees put your organization at risk. Research shows that human error causes 88% of data breaches.

Threat actors, too, know that they can exploit human weaknesses with much greater success than they could circumvent technological defenses. That’s why they constantly target employees. For cybercriminals, humans create opportunity — an easier way into your organization.

Although many threat actors are highly skilled and have unlimited resources, breaching your human layer doesn’t necessarily require a lot of savvy or sophisticated abilities. Human behavior often makes the cybercriminals’ job easy.

Many cybersecurity and business leaders now recognize that technology can only do so much to close the security gaps. According to KnowBe4’s The Security Culture Report 2021, 94% of 1,161 cybersecurity leaders said that security culture was the most important component of their security strategy.

A culture of security is the most effective tool for hardening the human layer — and doing so will better position your organization for preventing security incidents, defending against cyberattacks and protecting your critical data and assets.