Dark Reading is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
I agree with your first statement, "humans will always be the easiest attack vector for hackers". But I have increasingly come to realize that your second statement, "we need to continue training users", is not the logical conclusion.
This may seem paradoxical at first: if humans are the weak link, why not train them? But as attacks become more and more sophisticated, the sheer effort of training will become unbearable -- and start paying off less and less. Similarly, as the number of versions of the attacks we see mushroom, it will be harder for regular mortals to keep things straight. And this is what is happening.
So what can we do to deal with the fact that humans are, and will remain, the easiest attack vector? We need software that reflects the perspective of the human victims. What makes people fall for attacks? If we can create filters that identifies what is deceptive -- to people -- then we hare addresssing the problem.
Am I talking about artificial intelligence? Not necessarily. This can be solved using expert system, machine learning, and combinations thereof. What I am really talking about is software that interprets things like people do, and then filters out what is risky. Can we call this "artificial empathy"?
Special Report: Computing's New NormalThis special report examines how IT security organizations have adapted to the "new normal" of computing and what the long-term effects will be. Read it and get a unique set of perspectives on issues ranging from new threats & vulnerabilities as a result of remote working to how enterprise security strategy will be affected long term.
How IT Security Organizations are Attacking the Cybersecurity Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world -- and enterprise computing -- on end. Here's a look at how cybersecurity teams are retrenching their defense strategies, rebuilding their teams, and selecting new technologies to stop the oncoming rise of online attacks.
Tweet This
0 Comments
User Rank: Author
3/29/2017 | 7:37:11 PM
I agree with your first statement, "humans will always be the easiest attack vector for hackers". But I have increasingly come to realize that your second statement, "we need to continue training users", is not the logical conclusion.
This may seem paradoxical at first: if humans are the weak link, why not train them? But as attacks become more and more sophisticated, the sheer effort of training will become unbearable -- and start paying off less and less. Similarly, as the number of versions of the attacks we see mushroom, it will be harder for regular mortals to keep things straight. And this is what is happening.
So what can we do to deal with the fact that humans are, and will remain, the easiest attack vector? We need software that reflects the perspective of the human victims. What makes people fall for attacks? If we can create filters that identifies what is deceptive -- to people -- then we hare addresssing the problem.
Am I talking about artificial intelligence? Not necessarily. This can be solved using expert system, machine learning, and combinations thereof. What I am really talking about is software that interprets things like people do, and then filters out what is risky. Can we call this "artificial empathy"?