Your employees are your greatest asset, but they can also be your biggest security liability. In today’s digital age, cyber threats are more sophisticated and prevalent than ever before. This means that traditional cyber security awareness training is simply no longer enough to mitigate human risk.

However, a new approach is emerging: Human Risk Management (HRM). This innovative strategy focuses on understanding and addressing individual behaviours that could compromise security. In this blog, we’ll explore the limitations of traditional training and how Mimecast’s Human Risk Management solution is empowering organisations to protect themselves from the inside.

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Reading Time: 5 minutes

What This Blog Covers:

• Traditional vs. Human Risk Management: Is Your Security Awareness Training Enough?
• Why is Mimecast a Forrester Strong Performer in Human Risk Management?

As cyber threats continue to become more prevalent and sophisticated, businesses of all sizes are faced with the most paramount modern work vulnerability: their people. Despite the rapid technological advancements in cyber security, human risk is today’s biggest cyber security gap – and remains largely unaddressed. In fact, according to Mimecast, human error is implicated in over 90% of security breaches, with a staggering 68% of breaches involving a human element.

Is Your Security Awareness Training Enough?

Traditional Cyber Security Training

We have previously discussed various ways for your organisation to get cyber prepared – and it may come as no surprise that cyber security training for employees is at the very top of the list of best practices. However, traditional security awareness training often falls short of effectively dealing with human risk management. Given that no two businesses are alike, generic, one-size-fits-all programs are simply insufficient in increasing cyber security awareness and driving meaningful behavioural changes across the organisation.and driving meaningful behavioural changes across the organisation.

Why do these traditional programs fail to engage employees? Well, instead of producing tangible results, this form of training focuses on simply disseminating knowledge – the rest is up to the ‘student’. This means that traditional security awareness training oftentimes falls short of answering crucial questions such as:

• Does the training truly work?
• Are employees’ behaviours actually changing?
• Who are the riskiest employees within our organisation?

While traditional training relies on metrics like knowledge, engagement, and click rates, these measures fail to comprehensively assess risk exposure. The crucial missing element is measuring real-world behaviours, as this fundamentally answers the questions above.

Human Risk Management

From this, it becomes quite obvious that organisations needs a solution that fills in this key component by embracing a human risk management approach. This is where Mimecast comes in: they have adopted a human risk-centric approach to security awareness and training. The Mimecast Human Risk Management (HRM) platform – which includes Mimecast Engage, empowers organisations with unprecedented visibility into their risk profile.

Beyond providing basic training modules, Mimecast awareness training leverages real security data, risk signals and behavioural insights to create personalised learning experiences and interventions tailored to each employee, delivered at the right time. This allows IT teams (of any size) to focus on more strategic initiatives, while Mimecast takes care of the following:

• Identify high-risk users
• Tailor interventions to their specific needs
• Measure actual behaviours across various security categories
• Extract identity insights such as seniority and access levels
• Recognise personal attack exposures

In a nutshell, the Mimecast Human Risk Management (HRM) platform revolutionises the approach to cyber security training and awareness by simply placing people at the centre. Given that cyber security is so nuanced, it follows that human risk needs to be comprehensively managed at an individual level.

Why is Mimecast a Forrester Strong Performer in Human Risk Management?

Given that Mimecast is at the forefront of this paradigm shift in cyber security training, it may come as no surprise that their commitment to innovation has caught the eye of many industry leaders. One of which is Forrester, who have named Mimecast a Strong Performer in their Q3 2024 report, The Forrester Wave™: Human Risk Management Solutions. This acknowledgement showcases Mimecast’s substantial investments in product development and their position as a key player in the burgeoning human risk management market.

Forrester’s recognition is partly attributed to:

• Mimecast’s plans to introduce a human risk dashboard to its extensive customer base of 45,000
• Their plans for extensive third-party integration across the security ecosystem
• Their sophisticated calculation of human risk, considering actions (behaviour), attacks, and access (identity)

If you’re curious about whether this solution would be the best fit for your business, Forrester has some recommendations. They suggest that Mimecast is a must-have tools for organisations that have a “strong behavioural change drive”, and aspire to “move beyond SA&T” (Security Awareness & Training).

Tip: Read the full report here to gain deeper insights into the evolving landscape of human risk management solutions and understand why Mimecast is a leader in this critical space.

Is Your Organisation Ready to Elevate its Cyber Security Posture?

By embracing Human Risk Management and leveraging solutions like Mimecast, organisations can effectively mitigate human error and strengthen their overall security posture. Remember, knowledge is power: by understanding the evolving threat landscape and empowering your employees, you can significantly reduce your organisation’s risk.

Stay vigilant, stay informed, and take proactive steps to protect your business.