Reducing the Impact of Human Error in Financial Services

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office, in 2021 there were 9,758 recorded security incidents altogether, with only 2,759 of these being classified as cyber incidents. The remaining 6,999 were classed as non-cyber incidents, caused by human error, with the most frequent incident (1,637) being misfired emails.

Email is a powerful collaboration tool and is vital for businesses. However, it is also a major exit point for sensitive data. The average office worker is believed to send roughly 40 emails every day. Over the course of five days, this provides approximately 200 opportunities a week to inadvertently send data to the wrong recipient. In the case of the financial services industry, where organisations are routinely handling and transferring highly sensitive financial or personal information, this poses a significant problem. With 95% of cybersecurity breaches being caused by human error, it is clear that financial service organisations need to place much more focus on the human side of security.

Working from home changes that. Businesses have to relinquish some of the control over the security measures they could put in place for employees, instead having to rely on their staff to remain vigilant towards cybersecurity. In an ideal world, that shouldn’t be an issue as long as staff have the correct training. According to research undertaken by the Aberdeen Group in 2019, security awareness training can reduce the risk of socially engineered cyber threats by up to 70%.

However, it is also important to understand the wellbeing impacts that the pandemic had on staff. Research has shown that between 2019 and 2020, there were an estimated 828,000 workers impacted by work-related stress, depression, or anxiety. Separately, Benenden Health found that 32.8% of people rate a heightened workload as the primary cause for workload stress and mental health issues.

Email can have a bad reputation. It is now considered one of the world’s most insecure mediums. Yet, it remains one of the most convenient and popular tools to communicate and share sensitive information, with the DMA reporting that the majority of individuals have held their current email address for over 10 years. Businesses need to utilise the right tools that can provide secure digital communications. By leveraging encrypted sensitive document delivery, organisations can have the freedom to exchange information confidently, cost-effectively and with full compliance.