wards of 200 decisions about
food alone every single day.
www.AmericanSecurityToday.com September 2020 - Edition
Choosing an outfit and deciding
on an entrée are not life changing
decisions, but the mental
energy to make these selections
comes from the same finite reservoir
as the energy needed to
make much larger, more important
decisions.
The human brain has many different
goals and purposes, one
of which is to conserve energy.
One way brains conserve energy
is to use mental shortcuts or
heuristics.
These rules of thumb allow people
to do many complex tasks,
but when we take a closer look at
how they impact our decisions,
we find that taking shortcuts can
lead to cognitive bias and reasoning
errors.
The impact of cognitive biases
has no boundaries, and cybersecurity
decisions at all levels of
an organization are impacted by
bias.
Let’s look at three common cognitive
biases, explore how they
impact different areas of cybersecurity
decision making, and
finally identify strategies for
mitigating the negative impact
of cognitive bias.
Priorities, people, and purchases
Building a strategy to protect
against cyber threats requires
understanding and prioritizing
efforts to address existing or
potential threats.
Availability bias impacts what
agency leaders and cybersecurity
experts perceive as high priority
threats.
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