Greg Price recently submitted an article to the Troy Messenger, How to keep your online data protected, to share important safety information during National Cyber Security Awareness Month:

Statistically, most cyber security issues originate from end-user activity. In fact, nearly seventy-five percent of all reviewed security breaches began as the result of end-user action.

The statistics do not surprise most security practitioners. After all, currently, end-users are the dominant consumer of electronic resources – people deploy, configure and use the devices. The machines aren’t running everything, yet.

We end-users make mistakes. Those statistics include IT professionals and everyday users. Often IT professionals lack adequate skills and training. Perhaps they exhibited some talent or aptitude and became the “go-to computer person”. Clever use of modern technology is no substitute for proper training. Nearly one-third of all security breaches were the result of poor IT configuration and management, according to an annual IBM cyber security study. Have confidence in your IT resources. If a search engine is your technician’s preferred tool, perhaps looking elsewhere is appropriate.