Weary Warriors: Reducing the Impact of Wishful Thinking & Fatigue on Information Security Decisions

No ratings

Presented at InfoSecurityEurope 2019 by

Dr. Cunningham

Wishful thinking won’t protect your data and systems. Without understanding two key psychological constructs, motivated reasoning and decision fatigue, people will continue to put their trust in software alone to keep their systems safe – and then shift responsibility for adverse events onto end users. For example, those impacted by motivated reasoning will reuse passwords without believing it might actually have an impact. People who experience decision fatigue avoid decisions or choose the least effortful action. However, there are steps organisations and individuals can take to recognise and cope with these parts of human nature – are you prepared?Learning Outcomes:Gain an in-depth understanding of decision fatigue and motivated reasoning Learn how decision fatigue and motivated reasoning directly impact information security decision-making and behaviours Build a better understanding of why employees at all organisational levels struggle to maintain positive security habits Build strategies for counteracting flaws in human reasoning within the context of your organisationHelp your organisation make better cybersecurity purchasing decisions