The Human Firewall: Why Your Team is Your Best Defence Against Cyber Attacks (Part 1)?

Missing Link in Cybersecurity: Enhancing Security Through Training Employees.

In boardrooms across the globe, organisations are investing millions in sophisticated security tools, yet they are overlooking their most powerful defence mechanism: their people. The disappointing reality is that most cyber awareness training treats employees as potential liabilities rather than assets. Delivering dry, tick-box sessions that fail to connect the dots between individual actions and organisational survival. This needs to change. Now!

Policy enforcement and security teams must remember that behind every screen is a human being. When we roll out training or implement new security processes, we often forget a fundamental truth: we are dealing with people, not machines. The accounting manager juggling month-end reports does not see themselves as a cybersecurity professional. The customer service rep answering dozens of calls daily is not thinking about social engineering tactics.

The reason we need to bring our employees along on the journey

Instead of overwhelming staff with technical jargon or resorting to fear-based messaging, we need to make cybersecurity personal and relatable. When people see that the same phishing tactics threatening their work email could also compromise their personal bank accounts, the message becomes real. When they realise that good security habits at work can also help protect themselves and their children online, engagement doesn't just improve, it transforms. Cybersecurity training shifts from a focus on compliance to one of empowerment.

The Evolution of Protection: Why Multi-Factor Authentication Matters More Than Ever?

Let us talk about something simple that is revolutionary: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Yes, it adds an extra step to logging in. Yes, it can feel like a bit of a hassle. But here is what your team needs to understand: MFA is like having a bouncer, a security guard, and a biometric scanner all protecting your digital front door.

The evolution has been remarkable:

• First Generation, something you know (passwords)
• Second Generation, something you have (SMS codes, authenticator apps)
• Current Evolution, something you are (biometrics) and behavioural analytics
• Emerging Models, password-less authentication, continuous verification, and risk-based adaptive authentication

Modern MFA systems are evolving rapidly, now analysing login patterns, device fingerprints, and even typing behaviour to verify identity seamlessly and silently. The experience is smoother, but the protection is stronger. Those extra few seconds at login could be the only thing standing between business as usual and a major security breach.

The Uncomfortable Truth: Why Cyber Incidents Are a Matter of When?

Referring to today's threat landscape as cyberwarfare may sound dramatic, but it is increasingly accurate. With a hyperconnected digital ecosystem and growing system complexity, cyberattacks are not a possibility; they are a certainty.

This is the reality check every organisation needs; you will be targeted. It is not about pessimism; it is simple maths. Automated tools scan millions of systems around the clock, searching for vulnerabilities. No one is too big or too small. From Fortune 500 companies to small nonprofits, everyone is in the crosshairs.

The shift from "if" to "when" is not about inciting fear; it is about prompting action. Once we accept that attacks are inevitable, we move beyond denial and start building resilience. It is like winter is coming, you do not panic; you prepare.

Building Cyber Resilience: Where Prevention Meets Preparation.

By shifting focus from if to when, organisations can move from reactive defence to strategic resilience. This means implementing robust prevention measures that mitigate the triple threat of:

• Operational downtime
• Data loss
• Reputational damage

But resilience is not about building higher walls or arming the perimeter alone. It is about developing a flexible, layered security ecosystem, one that can absorb, adapt, and recover from attacks without collapsing. In today’s threat landscape, the most secure organisations are not the ones that never get hit; they are the ones that know how to bounce back.

Consider what happened to these major organisations:

Waikato Hospitals, New Zealand (May 2021)

A devastating ransomware attack brought one of New Zealand's largest health systems to its knees. The attackers used sophisticated phishing campaigns, leveraging publicly available information combined with social media intelligence to gain initial access. From there, it was textbook, access, elevate privileges, move laterally, and deploy encryption software. This resulted in chaos in critical healthcare delivery, with surgeries postponed and patient care compromised. This hit close to home for Kiwis, showing that we are not immune to global cyber threats.

Marks & Spencer, UK (2024)

In a chilling demonstration of social engineering's power, attackers simply picked up the phone. Impersonating an M&S employee, they convinced a third-party service desk to reset a password. No sophisticated hacking required, just confidence and insider knowledge. With legitimate credentials in hand, they navigated through Active Directory, eventually deploying DragonForce ransomware that crippled payment systems and online services. The lesson, your security is only as strong as your weakest human link.

City of Hamilton, Ontario (February 2024)

This attack decimated 80% of the city's network, from business licensing to property tax systems. The criminals demanded $18.5 million in ransom. The city refused to pay but ended up spending the same amount on recovery. The kicker, their insurance claim was denied because they had not fully implemented MFA, a preventable oversight that cost millions.

Jaguar Land Rover 2025

On 31 August 2025, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) was the victim of a cyber-attack. There is a discussion about whether it is a supply chain ransomware attack; its exact method of attack has not been made publicly available yet. The impact was to pause production on 1 September 2025, and by 22 September, it had caused production lines at Jaguar Land Rover to cease production for three weeks, and staff were told to stay at home. Besides the production loss, there is also the potential loss of Intellectual Property (IP). More critically, this situation impacts UK taxpayers and the subdivision and risk exposure of Tata Motors' business divisions. When you look further, the whole of the Tata Technologies organisation is impacted by the JLR attack and a direct attack on Tata in January 2025. There are some conflicting reports on the attack vector, but there is a lot of material pointing to phishing and other social media methods that compromised user IDs and passwords.    

The Power of Collective Defence: More Eyes, Enhanced Security

When the entire organisation gets involved in cybersecurity, something brilliant happens: your detection capabilities multiply exponentially. An administrative assistant who notices unusual email patterns, a warehouse worker who questions an unexpected system change, and a finance team member who spots a suspicious invoice, all of them contribute to your early warning system.

This is not about turning everyone into security experts. It is about creating a culture where:

• Questions are encouraged, not dismissed; reporting suspicious activity is praised, not punished 
• Security is seen as everyone's responsibility, not just IT's problem
• Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, not career-ending events

Remember, Cybersecurity is not about perfection; it's about progress. Every employee who thinks twice before clicking a link, every team member who questions an unusual request, every person who takes that extra second to enable MFA, they're all building a human firewall that no attacker expects to encounter. *

About Liverton Security

Digital technology has greatly expanded opportunities for businesses, but has also introduced complex security threats that organisations cannot ignore. Protecting people, critical data, and entire organisations requires proactive and continuous security strategies.

As an influential and respected leader in global cybersecurity, Liverton Security specialises in helping businesses and government organisations neutralise evolving cyber threats in the digital age.