Changing Bad Online security Habits with Behavioral Change

With lives becoming smart, more and more users and organizations have gone online, which led to a mass scale increase in cyber attacks. Cyber attacks have been estimated to rise by 67% in the past five years course, and the one major cause of the breach has been due to “human error.”

The estimation speaks a lot regarding the attacks scope and the impact it makes on the organization level and on the individuals. Which is why protecting oneself against these cyber attacks is not only complicated but a lengthy procedure as well. The fundamental issue arises because the technology we use nowadays has become sophisticated, but the attackers have found ways to deal with complex securities.

Then again, staying updated with the latest safety measures and considering safer devices is not the best possible solution. Users are frustrated, looking at the constant data breaches hitting the headlines “called privacy fatigue.” After some time, users get tired of updating privacy settings, changing passwords, and installing new software just for fear of cyber attacks.

Effects on Individuals and Organizations

Looking to outrun an organization’s breach, the most common way is providing employees and other concerned individuals particular training sessions. But the problem with such training is, it becomes obsolete within a short span and most of the employees get busy with their daily tasks. While employees are concerned about their tasks, they forget to stay updated and secure which makes balancing job and safety chaotic.

Research stated users logged out of the machine when they moved away from it. This happened when computers were fitted with proximity sensors. As a solution, users started placing cups on the sensors to disable it.

The aim was to improve the security benchmark but when the process initiated, it became an extra responsibility on the user. Considering that is the case then users had to continuously log in every time they went far away from their devices. These constraints encouraged cyber threats which took advantage of the scenario. A phishing email is a common problem that is time bound.

When people are busy in their routines, not being targeted is difficult but not impossible. It could be solved by changing their own “predetermined responses” which are habits or actions taken without careful consideration and are promoted as unintentional.

If all the users are trained in this way, the possibility of cyber attacks can be decreased. A “People’s Habit Research” indicated that prominent events or physical objects can trigger certain behaviors. Multiple gadgets fall under similar triggering factors.

There are certain things that users do which trigger cybersecurity behavior. These triggers are mostly interrupted when users do tasks that are not meant to be done. A good example would be when a person is scrolling on the web, and unwanted pop-up message appears. The notification can be very frustrating which users tend to ignore without reading as soon as possible to resume doing their tasks.

Changing Online Habits with Technology

There is a small electronic device called Adafruit Circuit Playground that is a programmable device which displays multiple colored lights that project rays of different patterns. This device needs to be kept close to a computer, and the sudden display of light will alarm the user to lock the computer display if somehow they left it open vulnerable.

The device can easily be installed and connected to multiple sensors that work to detect human movements triggering a beam of soft light (could be a sound as well) to aid the person change their old habit of leaving their computer screens open or updating privacy setting.

This kind of behavior (nudge) is less hectic for a person while he is working on a particular task, and without messing with the consistency of the user, the device will remind them. There is solid evidence of such actions which leave a positive impact on users.

When people are constantly distracted, lost in their conscious mind; they tend to oversee online privacy measures to stay anonymous and other vital considerations that lead to data breaches. These habits are present even after acknowledging the cyber threats and their seriousness. But specific behavior (nudging) can be a solution to reduce the chances of cyber threats making the workplace safe for everyone.