How Behavioral Economics Helps Manage Cybersecurity Risks

The behavior and decision-making processes of individuals have a direct impact on modern network security. If 90% of data breaches are caused by human error, understanding the way we think and behave is essential to successfully implementing cybersecurity frameworks and improving their effectiveness. On the other hand, humans are completely irrational. Fortunately, behavioral economics can help us understand why users make “bad security decisions” such as sharing devices, choosing poor passwords, downloading questionable links, etc. That’s even more important during the remote work era, when personal security hygiene has a greater impact on overall network health and one wrong decision can affect an entire organization. In today’s day and age where home is the new office and the perimeter is everywhere, behavioral economists would say that companies are seriously putting themselves at risk. By granting employees (and devices) too much access with little control in the way of monitoring or segmentation, the door opens further to hacks and breaches. Organizations must adjust to the new reality of a distributed workforce, and there is much to be learned from the behavioral economics discipline in regards to security posture. Join behavioral scientist Dr. Maria Blekher and cybersecurity experts Sivan Tehila and Sounil Yu to uncover the connection between behavioral economics and managing cybersecurity risks. Together, they will review the various factors that impact employees’ security decisions, and how we can apply them to our new remote work reality. Speakers: Sivan Tehila - Cybersecurity Expert, Director of Solution Architecture at Perimeter 81, Founder of Cyber Ladies NYC Dr. Maria Blekher - Behavioral Scientist, Founding Director at YU Innovation Lab, Clinical Associate Professor of Digital Strategies, Yeshiva University Sounil Yu - CISO in Residence at YL Ventures and Former Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America