Why Cyber Security and HR teams Must Work Together in a Hybrid Work World?

Even if remote and hybrid work arrangements are here to stay, they introduce new cyber security vulnerabilities. Human resources and information technology should collaborate on methods to help the organization adapt to the new working style while keeping employees informed and safe.

You might be forgiven for assuming that the IT department is entirely responsible for cyber security. However, the most secure businesses understand that each employee is responsible for some aspect of cyber security. While it may seem obvious that anyone could fall victim to a phishing attempt by clicking on a link in an email, our naiveté leads us to believe that these assaults never happen to us.

The IT department has a lot of potential for defending the company, but they can’t do it alone. Typically, companies have policies and induction processes in place to ensure employees are aware of how they should use the company-issued technology. Still, these tend to focus on what is and is not authorized. The missing piece is providing workers with the education and tools they need to protect themselves and the company from cyber-attacks that seek to trick them into giving criminals access to IT systems, which can result in disruption, a data breach, or a ransomware attack that can paralyze a business and encrypt its systems.

Constantly Shifting Nature of Cyber Threats

A lot has changed in the workplace in the past year, with more people than ever before opting to do their jobs from home. Most of us will be going back to work in some capacity, but more and more of us will be doing it from home. Since the nature of cyberattacks may be similar, but employees may be less cautious and less secure by technology outside of the office, this presents a favorable setting for cybercriminals.

For example, phishing emails remain a significant risk for remote workers, with fraudsters employing increasingly sophisticated methods, including providing government tax rebates and services or phony charitable activities to obtain employees’ credit card credentials.

Many people mistakenly believe that using cloud-based software is risk-free. Misconfigurations or using personal accounts rather than company accounts to exchange or store files can lead to unauthorized access, sensitive data theft, and a reportable incident to local data protection authorities; however using the cloud is not inherently risky in and of itself.

Closing the Strategy Gap

The IT department has a lot of potential for defending the company, but they can’t do it alone. What is lacking, however, are the cyber strategy threads that weave together IT, HR, and employees to construct a safe framework designed to keep everyone involved one step ahead.

HR can significantly aid in this endeavor through active training of workers. Changes in employee behavior put the organization at risk before being taught how to spot suspicious emails and other security threats. But expecting every worker to attend training sessions on new cyber hazards they might face is impractical (if not impossible), and how would you evaluate success?

How to Build Your Cybersecurity Talent Pipeline?

In the realm of cyber security, the tried-and-true “check box” method falls short because of the necessity of quantifying employee compliance with the company’s IT standards and pinpointing areas where more training is required. Realizing this during a cyber attack is like closing the stable door after the horse has gone.

Recognizing IT as a partner of HR to assist in meeting employee needs and providing an optimum environment is a crucial part of bridging this gap. A feature of DEX is called “sentiment analysis,” and it’s used to gauge how people feel about IT systems already in place to make sure they’re not causing any problems with productivity or morale. If problems with tools or equipment produce digital friction, this study can be used to rebalance the firm.

Reliance on antiquated IT infrastructure results in increased IT costs and decreased satisfaction among hybrid employees. As a result, productivity in the workplace drops, which hurts a company’s bottom line.

New Approaches to Training

Workers must be exposed to novel hazards in a controlled environment to acquire the skills necessary to mitigate them rapidly. An excellent approach to accomplish this is security awareness training (SAT), which, when combined with the appropriate software, may effectively serve as a bridge between employees, HR, and IT. For instance, the HR and IT departments can use the SAT solution to coordinate simulated phishing campaigns, in which dummy emails are sent to staff, and the recipients’ responses are used to determine where additional training is required. The sophistication of these simulations can increase with each new method hackers use.

Integration of security awareness training solutions into an organization’s IT infrastructure is straightforward, providing IT and HR departments with data they can use to evaluate and enhance the company’s security posture through continuous staff education and monitoring. This implementation can only be achieved by the successful collaboration between Cyber Security and HR teams.

One of the largest problems for workers is seeking help when they need it, such as when they are about to do something risky or illegal but are unaware of the consequences. The most effective security awareness training systems keep tabs on employee activity as they use apps, transfer files, and plug in USB keys, providing timely interventions to improve security practices. This detects when a user is engaging in potentially dangerous behavior and prompts instantaneous small ‘nudges’ that teach and enforce new habits among employees. Human resources and information technology would be notified promptly, and repeat offenders would be singled out for additional education. It can also be used to spot patterns in behavior that suggest additional cross-disciplinary instruction is warranted.

Humans as Barriers: Our Greatest Defence

Most workers whose jobs permit it will spend two or more days a week working from home. Employers should prepare for this expectation by incorporating it into their cyber strategy since it will likely be something candidates for new positions will seek.

Collaboration between Cyber Security and HR teams is a must. Whether employees are at home or in an office, they must be trained to act as a “human firewall” to protect the company from outside threats. When properly implemented, security awareness training may be a crucial part of a company’s cyber security strategy, allowing it to monitor and adapt to the ever-changing nature of cyber threats and provide its employees with the most up-to-date, relevant training possible at any given time.