It’s June and hard to believe that we are almost halfway through 2026. In this month’s newsletter we are focusing on how human behaviour is just as important as technology for maintaining cyber security and good account hygiene.
Cyber security – the human risk
Most of us use software or services to guard against cyber attacks but even the best anti-hacker technology can be bypassed by human behaviour including clicking links on an email or reusing a password. We all know we need to be careful but in the course of a busy day, it’s all too easy to trip up. For businesses running cloud-based workflows across multiple devices, the personal and professional can easily overlap introducing unnecessary risks. Here are some key areas to consider:
- Phishing and personal channels – the hackers thrive on the harder to filter, easier to spoof and often emotion-led triggers in personal inboxes, messaging platforms and social media feeds. If any of these share a device or browser with business systems, a single misstep can cross that boundary instantly
- Password reuse – reusing passwords across different accounts makes life easier for a hacker as if personal account credentials are compromised, they will automatically test them against business systems
Matching controls with how people operate can help to reduce risk:
- Separate contexts – separate browser profiles for work and personal activity, providing clear guidance on where business accounts should be accessed and identity boundaries that prevent accidental mixing
- Design for credential failure – by assuming that passwords will eventually be exposed somewhere, make sure your policy is designed to better manage that by ensuring unique credentials for every account and multi-factor authentication
SaaS offboarding – no more zombies!
In dynamic workplaces where either personnel or roles shift, making sure all SaaS accounts are appropriately assigned can be a challenge. Any “zombie” accounts could potentially compromise your data and increase your licencing costs:
- Create a comprehensive list of all SaaS applications used by the business
- Cross-reference with billing records
- Audit HR exit records from the past year and check against your SaaS inventory
- Check team-provisioned platforms like Salesforce, Asana and Notion
- Look for smaller applications employees may have used, such as AI writing assistants, survey platforms or data visualization tools
- Replace shared team logins with individual accounts wherever possible for a clean audit trail
- For each identified application, check the admin console to see who is currently active and when they last logged in. Enforce MFA on all cloud accounts
- Implement quarterly reviews for all active accounts
