Page 58 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2018

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Rampart de Troika: A Three-Step Process to Overcome Cybersecurity’s
Top Threat

by Daniel Jetton, Vice President of Cyber Services, OBXtek

The weakest link in most network security is human; however, recent research has determined an effective,
three-part process to mitigate the human factor vulnerability.

The Human Factor

Many cybersecurity experts consider the greatest threat to network security to be the manipulation of people
to circumvent protocols. People are the wildcard because firewalls, intrusion detection, doors and passwords
are predictable. People less so. The manipulation of people to penetrate a network is defined as social
engineering. Hackers prefer this psychological, non-technical attack method because using human interaction
to subvert security protocol is easier than penetrating a network using direct means.

Mitigating Social Engineering
Despite the prevalence of social engineering, research shows that mitigation can effectively be broken down
into a three-step process. The research demonstrates the relationship between cybersecurity training and
reduced social engineering incidents. The study concludes that three steps must be taken to counter social
engineering and mitigate the threat:

1. Awareness/knowledge introduces the user to threats and the need to be vigilant.
2. Training prepares users to address and act on threats to minimize loss by exploitation.
3. Reinforcement ensures users remain vigilant in their activities to combat social engineering.
The process has been named the Rampart de Troika (fortification of three).