Human error now plays a role in 95 percent of data breaches, making it more critical than ever for security teams to treat it as the substantial threat it is. In some cases, employees intentionally expose sensitive data for personal gain. But the most pervasive insider threats aren’t malicious — they’re accidental. This challenges the notion that an organization can become invulnerable if only it fortifies its perimeter well enough.
Human error is uniquely problematic to security teams because:
It’s harder to detect, often appearing as regular network activity
It involves legitimate credentials that can authorize deep access
It takes many forms, like clicking on phishing links or not updating software
Employees won’t report a mistake they don’t know they made
The Anatomy of Accidental Data Exposure
Human error leads to data exposure when employees share sensitive data or network access unknowingly. Due to its origin within the confines of the organizational perimeter, accidental data exposure may take longer to detect than a typical cyberattack. Accidental data exposure can look like:
Clicking a link in a phishing email or smishing text
Accidentally emailing data to the wrong recipient
Reusing passwords across personal and work accounts
Doing work over unsecured public Wi-Fi networks
Changing a cloud configuration for the sake of convenience
Allowing unfamiliar individuals into workspaces
Physical theft of employee laptops, USB drives, etc.
Sharing info with vendors that have poor cybersecurity
Logging into a system will always take less effort than orchestrating a brute force attack. Since cybercriminals have caught on that it’s easier to buy or steal credentials to gain entry than to execute complex attack techniques, credentials are now in high demand. Credential theft is gaining popularity, tripling year over year and creating a booming market on the dark web.
Common Weak Points
Reinforcing security within your systems starts with identifying the weak points where human error is most likely to occur. A comprehensive picture of these weak points can inform your security strategy for combating internal threats.
Cloud misconfigurations
Modern operations rely on cloud services, with only credentials and access privileges — the “identity layer” — standing between sensitive data and threat actors. In the earlier days of the cloud, storage buckets were the primary breach targets. Now that more infrastructure lives in the cloud, accidental misconfigurations can enable greater lateral movement.
Data that isn’t backed up
Failing to regularly back up data leaves organizations vulnerable to permanent loss from accidental deletion. When backups aren't properly managed, recovery becomes slow or impossible, leading to downtime and financial costs.
Over-permissioned files
Granting excessive access rights creates unnecessary risk, allowing employees or contractors to access data beyond what their roles require. This often happens due to oversight or unclear access policies, increasing the risk of accidental data exposure.
Lack of security awareness culture
Technology alone can’t prevent breaches if employees don't have the knowledge to recognize and avoid risky behaviors. Building a security-savvy culture through ongoing training ensures that human error doesn’t undermine the organization’s security posture.
Unstructured off-boarding procedures
When employees leave, lingering accounts and access credentials become targets for both human error and intentional exploitation. Without a standardized offboarding process, organizations risk leaving sensitive systems exposed to former staff or malicious actors who compromise abandoned accounts.
3 Layers of Protection from Accidental Data Loss
There is no way to completely prevent employees from making mistakes like clicking a link in an expertly crafted phishing attempt, though security awareness training can go a long way in helping them understand the telltale signs. But if security teams start approaching human error the same way they approach other attack vectors, they can significantly reduce the risks posed by unintentional insider threats.
If you’re unsure where to start, invest your efforts into data discovery, data loss prevention, and employee training.
1. Put a data discovery process in place
Data discovery is one of the most important steps to take when counteracting the risks of human error. Security teams can only protect the data they know about. Data discovery tools can display a complete data inventory in real time, regardless of where that data lives or how it moves. Part of the data discovery process is also determining who has access to that discovered data and how it is used. Effective data discovery tools should:
- Build a real-time inventory of sensitive data, regardless of where is resides or how it moves
- Surface shadow and orphaned data that may exist in unmanaged locations or unsanctioned apps
- Highlight over-permissioned identities and high-risk data exposures for remediation
2. Implement data loss prevention (DLP) tools
Once users have legitimate access to your network and data, perimeter security does nothing to inhibit the potential consequences of their human error. This is where DLP tools become necessary to protect sensitive data. DLP tools use analytics to detect user activity that poses security risk. They provide visibility into the movement of your data and apply appropriate controls to stop insider threats from exposing that data. Modern DLP tools should be able to:
- Analyze user and data activity to detect behaviors that may lead to leakage or exfiltration
- Apply granular controls such as blocking, encrypting, quarantining, or requiring justification for sensitive actions
- Provide clear prompts and coaching when user behavior appears risky, reinforcing policies in the flow of work
3. Give all users security awareness training
Employees, by and large, want to do right by their organizations’ cybersecurity policies. But they cannot abide by best practices if they don’t know what those policies are, what to look out for, or how to appropriately escalate suspected breach attempts. It’s security teams’ responsibility to effectively communicate expectations and provide security awareness training to minimize negligent behaviors and empower users with a sense of communal responsibility as daily defenders of the organization’s data. Strong human-risk programs typically:
- Tailor content and simulations to the threats different roles actually encounter
- Reinforce learning with short, engaging modules and phishing tests over time
- Encourage reporting of suspicious activity and near-misses, creating a culture of shared responsibility
Fortra’s Integrated Approach to Mitigating Insider Risk
Fortra’s approach to insider risk addresses each of these three layers with data security posture management (DSPM), data loss prevention (DLP), and human risk management.
Fortra DSPM: Organizations use Fortra Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) to discover, classify, and protect their data — including against insider threats like human error. Fortra DSPM discovers, classifies, and protects sensitive data across cloud apps and platforms such as Google Drive, AWS, and Microsoft Azure. It gives security teams visibility into where sensitive data is stored, who can access it, and where misconfigurations, shadow data, or excessive permissions create unnecessary insider risk.
Fortra DLP: Fortra DLP enforces role-based access to sensitive data and applies controls based on user action. It can prompt users when their behavior is risky and confirm privileged users haven’t taken sensitive data before leaving the organization.
Fortra Human Risk Management: Launch customized training campaigns with Fortra’s security awareness training platform. Our expert-vetted library of security awareness training content gamifies the educational experience with engaging activities and quizzes.
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