Will technology alone ever solve all security problems? People are almost always needed to make our business systems work.
What kinds of human decisions can never be replaced?
There are several situations where humans and technology need to interact:
- Routine system inputs that include free-form text or other content
- Routine system outputs that people need to act on
- Configuration parameters that control the technology’s decisions and actions
- Exceptional situations that technology isn’t able to process
- Technology makes mistakes that need to be addressed by humans
Each of these situations typically requires humans to interpret context and content and make decisions with financial, psychological or physical impact on someone.
Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash
“The challenges were so quick I was able to do them in the time it took me to sip an espresso.” – IT Security Manager
How long do you think it will take before all of these situations can be processed automatically AND SECURELY in most businesses? When that day happens will we all be able to become “poets and philosophers”, since there’s nothing important left for us to decide?
Until then, employees will need to be able to handle any inquiries they receive that can’t be processed by technology, and will need to make decisions that impact the risk of our businesses.
Scott Wright is CEO of Click Armor, the gamified simulation platform that helps businesses avoid breaches by engaging employees to improve their proficiency in making decisions for cyber security risk and corporate compliance. He has over 20 years of cyber security coaching experience and was creator of the Honey Stick Project for Smartphones as a demonstration in measuring human vulnerabilities.