Class 6 - Human security¶
Assignments¶
Cyber resilience
Cybersecurity
AI tools
Cyber resilience¶
Cyber rsilience is the ability of a system to prepare for, withstand and recover from cyberattaks. It goes beyond simply preventing attacks, focusing instead on ensuring that systems can continue operating and quickly recover when incidents may occur.
The concept of cyber resilience includes several key stages: preventing attacks by reducing their likelihood, detecting threats and anomalies as early as possible, responding effectively to contain and mitigate incidents, recover systems and operations after disruption and adapt by learning from past incidents to improve future attacks.
It is important to distinguish cyber resilience from related concepts. Cybersecurity focuses on protecting systems from unauthorized access, while cyberprotection refers to specific tools such as firewalls, encryption, access control and antivirus software that are used to prevent harm.
Therefore cyber resilience takes a broader perspective: assumes that no systems is completely secure and that incidents can happen. For this reason, the goal is not only to defend systems, but also to ensure continiuity of operations and minimize the impact of disruption.
In simple terms, security aims to stop attacks and resilience ensures that systems can survive, recover and continue functioning despite them.
a. What is one thing you can do to build cyber resilience?
One of the most effective measures for ensuring cyber resilience is maintaining a reliable and tested backup of your data. Regardeless of what happens - data loss, system failure or cyberattacks - backup allow you to recover and continue operations.
A widely recommended approach is the 3-2-1 rule, which means keeping three copies of your data, storing them on two different types of media and ensuring that one copy is kept offline. This strategy reduces the risk of losing all data due to a targeted attack.
In practice, backups form the foundation of any recovery strategy, making them essential for maintaning continuity and resilience in the face of disruption.
b. What might get in the way of building cyber resilience?
There are many factors that can get in the way of building cyber resilience and organizations often focus only on preventing attacks, rather than preparing to recover from them.
Common obstacles include limited resources, which can restrict the implementation of proper safeguards; overconfidence, which may lead to underestimating risks; and increased system complexity, which makes environments a harder to manage. In addition, poor backup practices, lack of recovery planning, human error and weak control mechanisms can all significantly reduce the ability to respond effectively to incidents.
Addressing these challenges requieres a balanced approach that combines prevention whith strong recovery strategies.
c. Why is cyber resilience an effective response to human-centric vulnerabilities?
Human mistakes are unavoidable. People may click on malicious links, reuse passwords, misconfigure systemes or simply forget to apply updates. These actions can introduce vulnerabilities even in well-designed systems.
Cyber resilience acknowledges this reality and focuses on building systems that can withstand and recover from such errors. Instead of assuming perfect behaviour, it accounts for human unpredictability and ensures that mistakes do not lead to critical failures.
Human-centerded vulnerabilities are inherently difficult to predict, which makes resilience especially important. By designig systems that can tolerate and adapt to these uncertainities, stability can be maintain even when errors occur.
Cybersecurity¶
Cybersecurity culture is what determines whether people follow security practices, even when no one is watching. It reflects the everyday behaviour, attitudes and awareness of individuals whithin an organization.
Many major security breaches occur not because technical tools fail, but because of human actions such clicking on malicious links or reusing credentials. These incidents highlight that security challenges are often cultural rather than purely technical.
Building a stron cybersecurity culture means promoting awareness, encouraging responsible behaviour and integrating security into daily routines. When people understand the importance of their actions and take responsibility, the overall resilience of the system improves significantly.
a. What are 2-3 behaviors you would like to see the people do to help the organization be cyber secure?
Many common cyberattacks can be prevented through simple, mindful user behavior. If individuals avoid clicking blindly, protect their credentials and report issues early, a significant number of threats can be stopped before causing harm.
Users should take a moment to think before interacting with suspicious links and carefully verify any unexpected requests. It is also important to use strong, unique passwords for each account and enable multi-factor authentication whenever possible. Additionally, reporting unusual emails, login attempts or system behavior can help detect and mitigate threts at an early stage.
These practices do not require advanced technical skills, yet the can make a critical difference between a compromised system and a secure, well-funcitoning organization.
b. What are the values, attitudes and beliefs that would drive these behaviors?
Secure behavior is driven by people who feel responsible, cautious, accountable and safe to speak up. At its core, cybersecurity culture depends on the right mindset, which shapes how individuals approach risks and daily decisions.
When users understand that security is everyone´s responsibility, not just the role of the IT department, they become more engaged in protecting the organization. Recognizing that not everything online is trustworthy and that individuals can either protect or hamr the system helps reinforce this awareness.
With this mindset in place, many potential vulnerabilities can be reduced at their source, strengthening the overall security of the organization.
c. What are the mechanisms you can employ to create the values, attitudes and beliefs?
Creating strong cybersecurity values require more than simply telling people what to do. It involves designing systemsn, incentives and an environment that gradually shape secure behavior over time.
A solid cybersecurity culture can be developed by consistently training people, reinforcing positive actions and creating a safe environment where individuals feel comfortable acting securely and speaking up when something seems wrong.
When these elements are in place, secure behavior becomes a natural part of daily work rather than a forced obligation.
AI tools¶
Two of the most important security risks associated with the use of GENAI toolas are data leakage and overtrust.
Data leakage can occur when users share sensitive information such as passwords, internal documents, customer data or proprietary code in order to get assistance. This information may be stored, logged or even used to improve the model, depending on the platform and its policies.
On the other hand, overtrust happens when users assume that AI-generated outputs are always correct, safe and secure without proper verification. This can lead to serious issues such as vulnerable software, misconfigurations or unnoticed security flaws.
Ultimately, the greates vulnerability in GenAI usage is not the technology itself, but how people intercat with it. Oversharing sensitive data and blindly trusting outputs can introduce significant risks if not managed carefully.
a. For each concern, explain why this is a concern?
AI tools often process input data on external servers. When users paste confidential information, they may unintentionally expose it outside the organization´s secure environment. Even if the tool claims not to store the data, the organization effectively loses control over that information. This risk arises because people tend to treat AI as if they were private assistants, when in reality they are interacting with third-party systems.
For example, a developer debugging an issue might share a connection string such as DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@internaldb.company.com
This single line exposes sensitive details, including a username, password and internal infrastructure. If intercepted, it could allow unauthorized access to the company´s database.
Another major risk is overtrust in AI-generated outputs. While AI systems can poduce helpful responses, they may also generate incorrect information, often presented with a high level of confidence. If users assume the output is always correct and implement it without verification, them ay introduce hidden vulnerabilities.
For instance, asking for a secure Ngnix configuration might result in a basic setup that still enables HTTP or uses outdated TLS settings. Without careful review, such configurations could weaken the overall security posture.
These examples highlight that the main risk is not the technology itself, but how it is used. Protecting sensitive data and critically evaluate AI outputs are essential practices when working with these tools.
b. What behavior(s) would minimize the risk of a negative impact for this concern?
Using AI tools safely comes down to a few key habits: share less, question more and verify everything.
Before providing any input to an AI system, sensitive information should be sanitized. For example, real usernames, passwords and domains can be replaced with placeholders such as USERNAME, PASSWORD or example.com. This helps prevent accidental exposure of confidential data.
At the same time, AI-generated outputs should always be treated as suggestions rather than definitive answer. Users should critically evaluate and verify any results before applying them in real scenarios.
c. What is a mechanism you can use to drive the values, attitudes, and beliefs that would encourage the behavior(s) you seek?