How cyber attacks damage mental health

Every business will, at some point, be impacted by cyber attacks. Companies task security teams to prepare the first line of defense against cyber attacks, and most have plans in place for the damage they leave behind – be it data loss, encryption by ransomware operators, or large-scale service disruptions.

But something that often goes unremarked upon in the wake of cyber attacks is the psychological, human effects of cyber attacks. When the dust settles, staff can be left with feelings of fear or shame, particularly those directly related to IT security.

Who’s at risk of this harm? And what can leaders do to minimize the impact?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Parisa Bazl, head of user experience at data protection firm Commvault, to discuss the psychological harms that come with cyber attacks and what organizations can do to better support frontline IT staff.

Highlights

“There's a lot of guilt associated, either with somebody who admits the vulnerability, or even those who were set up to defend the organization. They tend to express a lot of feelings of guilt about the fact that it happened, even though these days it does tend to be a little bit more inevitable, given the sophistication of everything right now.”

“I would encourage people to look at when they say, you know, cyber incidents are up 200%, or ransomware, I think, is 10 trillion a year now, as opposed to three so it's inevitable that we're gonna get attacked, or that one of our third-party vendors will disrupt our supply chains, whatever – what does that really mean for the folks that make up your organization?”

“So I think that IT folks have been this hidden necessity for a very long time. But now, given the breadth of the attack vector, which means people can come in through any employee, they can come in through third parties, whatever it is, it's become much more of an organizational conversation.”

Footnotes

• Why 'psychological safety' is so important for building a robust security culture
• Building an incident response strategy in 2024
• The hidden cost of ransomware is more painful than many realize
• Why ransomware attacks happen to small businesses – and how to stop them
• The end of ransomware payments: How businesses fit into the fight
• UK firms are failing miserably at data breach responses
• Data breach response: How to react when your business gets hit
• Dell hacker claims they had access to systems for nearly three weeks

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