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Yawn, another cyber-security test. Time to rethink them?
Current cyber-security training is failing to take into account human behaviour and frailties. It can even make a firm less secure.
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A scam prevention mural at Clementi Central. Cyber criminals grow more sophisticated. They exploit loopholes in human behaviour such as fatigue, distraction and making habitual shortcuts.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
Georgios Christopoulos
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It’s Friday and an employee is rushing through a mandatory 45-minute cyber-security video, about to miss the deadline set by the company. The tips are predictable: “Don’t share your password”, “Beware of suspicious links”. They let it run in the background, clicking through it as they scroll Instagram – and pass.
Everyone passes. The company’s cyber-security team boasts: “100 per cent compliance”. On paper, the company looks secure. In reality, it isn’t, because you can have the knowledge, but it doesn’t take into account the behaviour of humans and their frailties.

