How to identify users who are more susceptible to cyberattacks?

When it comes to vulnerability to cyber attacks, it is common to associate it only with the level of knowledge of employees about information security.

However, a user's susceptibility goes far beyond what they know. Factors such as behavior in the face of risky situations, the context of their activities, directly influence the probability of an attack.

In other words, two employees who have received the same training can present completely different levels of risk.

Therefore, understanding these factors is the first step to identify which users demand greater attention and direct more strategic actions to reduce human risk within the organization.

What makes a user more vulnerable to attacks?

A user's vulnerability to cyberattacks cannot be evaluated solely by their level of knowledge about information security.

Although training is essential, knowing how to identify a threat does not guarantee that the employee will make the right decision in all situations.

This is because behavior in the face of pressure, distraction, or urgency scenarios has a significant weight in how each person reacts to phishing attempts, social engineering, and other threats.

In addition, the work context also directly influences this risk, after all, professionals who deal daily with a large volume of:

·       Emails;

·       External requests;

·       Sensitive information.

They tend to be more exposed to attacks than those whose activities involve less interaction with these elements.

Therefore, identifying more susceptible users requires an analysis that combines behavior, context, exposure, and level of access, allowing human risk management to be based on data and the actual exposure of each employee.

What are the factors that help identify susceptible users?

The probability of an employee being the target of a cyberattack does not depend on a single aspect, but on the combination of different factors that influence their exposure and behavior in the digital environment.

Understanding these elements allows organizations to stop treating human risk in a generic way and start identifying which users really require greater attention. The following are some of the key factors that increase susceptibility to cyberattacks.

Frequency of interaction with external emails

Employees who are in constant contact with customers, suppliers, partners, or other external audiences receive a significantly higher volume of messages from unknown domains.

The greater this exposure, the more likely it is that phishing attempts, identity fraud, or malicious attachments will make their way to your inbox.

In addition to the volume, the routine of these professionals usually requires quick responses and constant analysis of requests, which can reduce the level of attention dedicated to verifying senders, links, and files.

Therefore, areas such as commercial, purchasing, finance, and customer service often have a higher level of exposure than the rest of the organization.

Use of privileged credentials

Users with access to sensitive information, critical systems, or administrative privileges represent high-value targets for cybercriminals.

The compromise of a single privileged account can allow lateral movement in the network, access to strategic data, and even control of assets essential to the company's operation.

This risk does not mean that these employees are more likely to make mistakes, but that the impact of an eventual incident involving their credentials tends to be much greater.

Therefore, risk management must consider not only the probability of an attack, but also the consequences that compromised access can generate for the business.

Remote work and miscellaneous devices

The adoption of remote work has expanded the flexibility of organizations, but it has also expanded the attack surface.

Employees started to access corporate systems from home networks, personal devices and environments that do not always offer the same security controls that exist within the company.

This diversity of devices and connections makes it difficult to standardize protection measures and increases opportunities for vulnerability exploitation.

When there are no clear access, authentication, and monitoring policies, human risk is enhanced by the technological environment used by the employee.

Lack of safety culture

Isolated training is hardly enough to transform behaviors.

When information security is not part of the organizational culture, employees tend to see good practices as one-off obligations, instead of naturally incorporating them into their work routine.

A strong culture encourages constant attention, encourages incident reporting without fear of punishment, and reinforces shared responsibility for protecting company assets.

Organizations that foster this environment are able to significantly reduce exposure to human risk over time.

Which indicators show who is more exposed?

It is necessary to monitor indicators that reveal how employees behave in the face of real or simulated threats.

The results of phishing campaigns, for example, provide valuable insights into the ability to recognize fraud attempts.

While metrics such as click-through rate on malicious links and sending credentials help measure the level of susceptibility of different users, teams, or areas of the organization.

This data allows you to identify risk patterns and direct preventive actions much more efficiently.

In addition to the responses to the simulations, other behavioral indicators are fundamental for continuous human risk management.

The time it takes an employee to report a threat, the frequency with which they adopt unsafe behaviors, and the evolution of these indicators over time offer a more complete picture of their exposure.

Thus, instead of evaluating isolated events, the combination of these metrics allows you to understand trends, prioritize users who demand greater attention, and monitor the effectiveness of awareness initiatives.

In this way, the organization stops acting reactively and starts making decisions based on concrete data, strengthening its Human Risk Management strategy.

Why is segmentation more efficient than training everyone in the same way?

Training all employees in the same way is based on the premise that everyone has the same level of risk, which rarely corresponds to reality.

By segmenting users based on risk profiles, behavior, and level of exposure, the organization is able to direct its investments to where they generate the greatest impact.

This approach allows the development of personalized campaigns, adapted to the needs of each group, increasing the effectiveness of awareness actions and promoting more consistent behavioral changes.

As a result, resources are used more strategically, security efforts become more efficient, and human risk reduction is underpinned by data rather than generic initiatives.

What is the role of Human Risk Management (HRM)?

Human Risk Management (HRM) represents an evolution of traditional information security awareness by transforming employee behavior into a measurable and manageable element.

Instead of focusing efforts only on conducting periodic training, HRM uses data-based intelligence to identify behavioral patterns, measure each user's exposure, and track evolution.

With this approach, organizations start to make risk-driven decisions, prioritizing actions for users, teams, and areas that really demand attention, making security investments more strategic.

How does PhishX HRM identify most susceptible users?

Instead of just evaluating training performance, the platform uses intelligent phishing simulations to observe how each employee reacts to different threat scenarios.

From these interactions, individual and area-by-area indicators are generated, allowing the identification of behavior patterns, comparison of exposure levels, and understanding which groups are at greater risk to the organization.

This information is classified and the results are presented in executive dashboards, offering a clear and strategic view of human risk across the organization.

In addition, PhishX generates personalized action recommendations, allowing Information Security teams to prioritize training, campaigns, and mitigation initiatives according to each employee's risk profile.

These actions are important because they make human risk management more accurate, continuous, and efficient. Want to know more? Contact our experts.

It is essential to identify the users who are most susceptible to cyberattacks.