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-- INSIGHTS
The Human Side of Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity incidents are rarely just technical. They are shaped by employee decisions, security culture, phishing and social engineering, AI use, and the way organizations respond to risk.
HumanSecIQ Insights examines those factors through practical guidance, analysis, and real-world cybersecurity incidents.
The Rise of Identity-Based Attacks: What Recent Breaches Are Telling Us About the Future of Cybersecurity
Recent breaches show a recurring pattern: attackers do not always need to break through technology when they can obtain trusted access. Stolen credentials, MFA manipulation, help desk social engineering, and compromised sessions all point to the same security problem.
Rebecca Guy
Jan 207 min read
Co-op Cyber Incident 2025: Third-Party Access and the Decision to Disconnect
The Co-op cyber incident shows how quickly an identity-driven attack can become an operational decision. Its response highlights the value of limiting attacker access early, even when containment requires disruptive action.
Rebecca Guy
Jul 29, 20255 min read
Marks & Spencer Cyber Incident 2025: Help Desk Social Engineering and Identity Risk
The Marks & Spencer cyber incident shows how convincing impersonation can turn a service desk into an access path. Strong identity security requires more than employee awareness. Verification and recovery processes also have to withstand social engineering.
Rebecca Guy
Jun 17, 20255 min read
AI-Enabled Business Email Compromise: The Old Warning Signs Are Not Enough
AI can make business email compromise more polished, personalized, and convincing, but the attacker still needs the message to trigger an action. Strong defenses do not depend on spotting every fake. They make high-risk requests harder to execute without independent verification.
Rebecca Guy
Jan 1, 20256 min read
AI Voice and Video Impersonation: When You Can No Longer Trust What You See or Hear
AI-generated voices and video can make familiar trust signals unreliable. The answer is not expecting employees to detect every fake. It is building verification processes that still work when a call, message, voice, or face looks completely legitimate.
Rebecca Guy
May 24, 20247 min read
MGM Resorts Breach 2023: Help Desk Social Engineering and Operational Risk
A social engineering attack against MGM Resorts turned an identity-verification failure into widespread operational disruption. The incident shows how help desk processes, trusted identities, and human decisions can become part of the security boundary.
Rebecca Guy
Oct 10, 20234 min read
Caesars Entertainment Breach 2023: Social Engineering, Vendor Risk, and Extortion
The Caesars Entertainment breach shows how social engineering against a trusted third party can become an identity and extortion problem for the organization itself. The incident highlights the security consequences of vendor access, verification, and trust.
Rebecca Guy
Sep 23, 20234 min read
Uber Breach 2022: MFA Fatigue and the Human Cost of One Approved Request
A contractor's stolen credentials, repeated MFA prompts, and one approved request gave an attacker access to Uber's internal systems. This breach shows how identity controls can fail when attackers exploit both technology and predictable human behavior.
Rebecca Guy
Nov 7, 20224 min read
Cisco Breach 2022: MFA Fatigue and the Limits of a Trusted Login
Stolen credentials, repeated MFA prompts, and voice phishing gave an attacker access to Cisco's corporate VPN. The incident shows how trusted identities can become attack paths when authentication depends on both technical controls and human decisions.
Rebecca Guy
Sep 1, 20224 min read
Twilio Breach 2022: SMS Phishing and the Limits of MFA
SMS messages impersonating Twilio's IT team directed employees to fraudulent login pages, allowing attackers to capture credentials and access internal systems. The breach shows how phishing-resistant authentication and identity controls matter when attackers target the login process itself.
Rebecca Guy
Aug 15, 20224 min read
Next Steps
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