Why Blaming Staff for Email Mistakes is Problematic

“Clicked the phishing link? Terminate the employee.” That’s the usual genius solution. Because of course, when someone falls for a well-crafted phishing email, it’s their fault. Not the security team’s. Not the leadership’s. Just the employee who was never trained, never supported, and working with systems built in 2012. Let’s call this what it is: Lazy, reactive blame culture. Phishing is not a user problem. It’s a leadership problem. You can’t dump every risk on the people who have zero control over: • MFA enforcement • Email filtering • Device hardening • Privileged access • Alerting systems • And basic incident response You want users to behave securely? Give them a secure environment to work in. If a phishing email can bring down your company, the problem isn’t the user. It’s the architecture. Instead of pointing fingers, do this: Reduce blast radius. Don’t give anyone access they don’t need. Isolate critical systems. Assume compromise. Make phishing boring. Block obvious stuff before it even lands. Train people with real scenarios, not cartoonish e-learning junk. Reward reports. Don’t shame mistakes. If leadership doesn’t own this, They don’t deserve the title. Security isn’t just tech. It’s culture. It’s design. It’s ownership. And if you’re still blaming your employees for falling for phishing emails in 2025… You’ve already failed. 📌 P.S. As a trusted cybersecurity specialist, I can help you assess your cybersecurity risks and recommend the right solutions for your business. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need assistance. #cybersecurity

Humans are NOT the weakest link in cybersecurity. Initially, this statement will read like security heresy, please bear with me. The idea that humans are the weakest link oversimplifies cybersecurity control failures and unfairly shifts the blame onto our colleagues, our partners. This mindset damages trust between security teams and the rest of the organization and overlooks the real issue: technology and security controls can be very complex and don’t always support our employees in an effective way. Security teams blame employees for making mistakes, but perhaps the problem isn’t human error, it’s the overreliance on users to be perfect, which is fundamentally flawed. Instead of focusing on mistakes, security and technology teams should work in partnership to build human-centric security that demonstrates support for your organization. You’re a booster, not a blocker. It’s time to ask if security controls are too complex, inconvenient, or ineffective. Are they designed to serve your organization’s needs or is it adding unnecessary friction to workflows? Some things I do as a security leader: 🤝 Instead of blaming employees for weak passwords, enforce password managers and passkeys, simplify authentication. (eliminate security theater) 🤝 Instead of punishing phishing failures, celebrate phishing campaign successes and provide tools for our employees to help 🤝 Instead of requiring MFA logins for everything in the organization, adopt Zero Trust principles. Employees are a security asset, not a liability. With the right tools and awareness, employees become a powerful first line of defense Let’s create security that works for people, not against them

Stop blaming the receptionist for clicking on stuff they should be clicking on. Year after year, companies dump piles of cash into flashy security awareness programs that promise to turn every employee into a phishing-fighting ninja. We get slick videos, dashboards full of pretty graphs, and compliance checkboxes. Boards breathe a sigh of relief because click rates went down. Sounds great, right? Except phishing still owns your network like it’s an open house. If all that training actually worked, phishing wouldn’t still be the top entry point for breaches. So maybe, just maybe, we’re barking up the wrong tree blaming the person who clicked. Phishing simulations have morphed into the security team’s favorite gotcha game. Surprise! Here’s a fake urgent email, click it and get publicly shamed for being human. Spoiler: it’s usually the receptionist or customer service rep—people juggling ten tasks at once, not security experts. These “training” exercises don’t build skill; they build resentment. They punish the very people who should be your first line of defense, while leaving your network open to a free-for-all. Let’s get real: security awareness isn’t a control like multifactor authentication or network segmentation. It’s a nudge, a hint, not a shield. If your systems crumble the moment someone slips up, you don’t have a user problem. You have a design problem. Many companies weaponize these tests to catch people off guard, then shame them. “How dare you respond quickly to your boss’s email!” The same cues attackers use to trick people are often just normal workplace urgency. Punishing someone for doing their job is entrapment, not education. Meanwhile, leadership nods along to charts showing “progress” while ignoring the fact that a single click still leads to full domain compromise. That’s like blaming a driver for getting lost when the GPS is dead, the signs are missing, and the map is wrong. If your infrastructure can’t survive one mistake, you’re not building resilience you’re stacking the deck against yourself. Let’s stop the security theater. Stop pretending awareness training alone keeps your data safe. Instead, invest in real defenses: segmentation, least privilege, automated detection, and fast incident response. Build systems that assume someone will click. Because they will. Clicks are how the internet works. HR sending clickable forms, finance emailing invoices—that’s not the problem. The problem is everything that happens after. When boards wake up and demand metrics that matter—mean time to detect, mean time to contain, blast radius of incidents—that’s when real security starts. Until then, you’re just punishing busy people trying to do their jobs while hackers throw your company a party. If you want a less snarky and significantly more detailed look at this you’ll find it on my blog: https://lnkd.in/ekhEpBwt

Stop Blaming Employees: The Real Reason SMBs Are So Vulnerable to Cyberattacks The narrative that employee negligence is the main cause of cyber breaches in SMBs oversimplifies the issue. While human error certainly plays a role, the real problem lies deeper within the company’s cybersecurity culture. Here’s why blaming employees isn’t the full picture: → Limited Resources = Increased Vulnerability Many SMBs operate on tight budgets and lack dedicated IT staff, leaving them exposed to cyberattacks. Security often takes a backseat to operational priorities. → Lack of Awareness SMB owners often believe they’re too small to be targeted by cybercriminals, underestimating their risk. Employees also often receive little to no cybersecurity training, increasing the chances of breaches. → Technical Barriers Cybersecurity is complex. Without the necessary expertise, SMBs struggle to implement effective measures and can fall victim to third-party vendors offering incomplete solutions. → Complacency and Overconfidence When businesses fail to regularly update their security measures or create formal cybersecurity policies, they open the door to threats. A security-first culture is crucial, but many SMBs lack this mindset. → The Need for Comprehensive Solutions To truly protect against cyber threats, SMBs must invest in training, policies, and technology. Cybersecurity must be prioritized at every level—management included—and treated as a shared responsibility across the organization. The takeaway? Instead of blaming employees, let’s tackle the systemic issues that leave SMBs vulnerable. Prioritize comprehensive cybersecurity solutions and create a culture of continuous learning and vigilance.

Blame can be incredibly toxic in the workplace, eroding trust, collaboration, and overall morale. It is a deeply ingrained response, often automatic, when things go awry. Recognizing and mitigating blame requires conscious effort and a shift in mindset towards more constructive communication and problem-solving. "Weak leaders might ask “Who’s at fault?” but strong leaders, using a systems approach, would ask, “Where did the process break down?” The solutions to your organization’s problems are more likely to be found by examining what’s wrong with your systems than by examining what’s wrong with your employees." https://lnkd.in/eBeCP-en