As Mental Health Awareness Week kicks off, cyber security expert Anna Collard is urging individuals and organisations to focus on building “cyber mindfulness” to reduce susceptibility to threats such as phishing attacks. Collard, SVP of content strategy and evangelist at KnowBe4, has outlined her top tips for encouraging cyber mindfulness.
Firstly, Collard suggests avoiding multi-tasking, which she said causes individuals to become tired, anxious and depressed. Humans are not equipped to handle more than one task at a time, and context-switching burns up glucose and energy. She recommends focusing on one task at a time, taking breaks between periods of work and avoiding looking at mobile phones or email while focusing on a single task.
The expert also suggests taking pause before responding to messages that trigger an emotional response. By slowing down and taking a moment to prepare emotionally, individuals can avoid making rash decisions that could result in clicking on a malicious link or downloading a bad attachment.
In group settings, Collard proposes building in time for decompression. Instead of holding a 30-minute meeting, she recommends organizing a 25-minute meeting with the last five minutes set aside for relaxing, avoiding cognitive overload from multiple messages, and listening to binaural beats to help you focus and reduce anxiety.
Collard has also provided three exercises for people to improve cyber mindfulness and focus in the workplace. The first exercise involves breathing with movement. To do this, stand up, inhale deeply and raise your arms, then exhale as you bring your arms down to your sides. Repeat several times.
The second exercise, grounding your senses, requires individuals to mentally focus on three things they can hear, smell and taste, to help bring them into the current moment and calm their senses. Finally, box breathing is a simple exercise that involves breathing in for four counts, holding for four counts, and exhaling for four counts. Repeat as needed.
According to a recent survey, stress causes over half of those surveyed to make more mistakes while at work, with 47% of individuals who fell for a phishing attack attributing it to being distracted. As cyber threats continue to rise, practicing cyber mindfulness in the workplace could prove crucial in avoiding such attacks.