January 26.2026
2 Minutes Read

Why 2025 Was a Wake-Up Call to Protect Human Decisions in Cybersecurity

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The Shift from Cybersecurity to People-Centric Protection

As we transition into 2026, reflections on 2025 reveal a troubling truth about our approach to cybersecurity. The incidents that shook the foundations of various industries were less about sophisticated hacking and more about vulnerable human decision-making when faced with technical failures. For organizations, this realization marks a pivotal shift—cybersecurity must evolve beyond just protecting systems to safeguarding the individuals who make critical decisions under uncertainty.

Examining Major Incidents and Their Human Impact

Two notable cases from 2025 highlight how a focus on human decision-making can mitigate damage. The ransomware incident at Change Healthcare disrupted operations nationwide, revealing how systems that were online but frail led to fractured communication and decision-making among clinicians. Hospitals reverted to outdated paper workflows, blurring the lines between unavailable and unreliable data. This confusion resulted in delays in patient care and increased risks of errors during critical moments.

Similarly, a global outage due to a flawed update at CrowdStrike caused widespread chaos, with disruptions felt across not just aviation but essential services. The outage underlined a critical issue: when system reliability is questioned, operational confidence vanishes, leaving decision-makers to operate in a fog of uncertainty.

Strategies for Improving Decision Resilience

To avert such scenarios in the future, organizations need to adopt robust strategies that prioritize emergency identities and data integrity. First, implementing emergency identity controls will ensure that temporary access is both time-bound and systematically monitored. Second, organizations should integrate data confidence indicators into their systems, visibly flagging any states of degraded integrity. Lastly, recovery processes must prioritize establishing trust in data before merely resuming operations.

Understanding the Human-AI Interplay in Decision Making

Greater reliance on artificial intelligence in cybersecurity is both an opportunity and a challenge. While AI systems are essential in enhancing predictive capabilities against threats, they can also lead to erroneous decisions if relied upon during crisis situations. As seen in the Mimecast report, human risk has emerged as the leading factor in breaches—human error now accounts for 95% of incidents. Moving forward, organizations are urged to establish safety controls around AI's implementation, ensuring it complements rather than complicates human decision processes.

Charting a Course for Future Cybersecurity Initiatives

As we advance into a future laden with uncertainties, organizations must rethink what it means to secure their operations. The focus must narrow to nurturing an environment where informed decision-making thrives despite crises. Adopting a culture that empowers individuals with the right tools and indicators to act effectively will not only restore confidence but can also preemptively curb damage when systems show signs of failure.

Analyzing 2025 should catalyze organizations to redesign their cybersecurity dialogue—to shift from simply preventing attacks to prioritizing the human element embedded within technological solutions. Recognition of this shift can illuminate pathways to a more resilient cybersecurity landscape.

Cybersecurity Corner

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