When the weakest link has a headache
How can we have headaches when there are no receptors in the brain to register pain?
This means we can’t feel pain inside our head.
And yet, we do.
I’ve read an article about this recently.
It said that it’s not our head that hurts inside, but other parts of our body (mostly the muscles in the neck, jaw or shoulders) that radiate the sensation.
And then our head hurts and we get tense, we argue and do all sorts of stupid things.
Some people get migraines so bad that they lose themselves and wonder what happened here when they get better.
We shouldn’t drive with headache or do anything that requires responsibility because we just do not function as normal.
In that sense, it’s just like being drunk – being under an influence means that your consciousness is altered.
So, does a little headache keep you from work?
Many of us would say no, even though in our “sober” mind we know that a headache amps up the chances of us making a bad decision.
We just don’t take it very seriously.
I don’t necessarily mean big things or serious decisions.
I’m not talking about what car/house/dog to buy, which school to send the child to, etc.
“Why did you enrol the child in the school in next town?”
“Umm… I had a headache…”
(I’ve quit a business once because I had a toothache, but that’s a story for another day.)
Little things can get you into big trouble.
So, I’m talking about the little decisions like put on the kettle now or leave it for later, send this email or wait, open the window or lower the blinds, etc…
And then sometimes it turns out you shouldn’t have done that little thing.
Of course, at times, I do stupid things even without alcohol or headache – guess I’m not alone.
When I don’t pay enough attention, don’t think things through, just forget something, send an email without proofreading, take the wrong exit at the roundabout, forget to get off the bus, etc.
By the way, this is exactly what scammers are after: that we don’t pay enough attention.
They trick you with an innocuous text message, fool you with a website that looks familiar, seduce you with a super offer that seems impossible to pass on.
We click on it and damage is done.
85-90% of successful website intrusions are caused by human error.
According to industry surveys and research, 85-90% of cyber-attacks (security incidents) are caused by human error.
The occasions when we didn’t pay enough attention.
Because we had a headache, we were depressed, we had a fight with our partner, we were just plain tired, etc.
Of course, I’m not saying we should be 100% alert at all times – no one can do that.
What I am saying is that the vast majority of these problems, 60-75% according to research, can be prevented by the right use of available technology.
We also talk about this during the Free Website Audit, because we see that a lot of websites are not set up to rule out human error.
And even more alarming is how unaware people are of this threat. Or worse, they are aware, they just don’t care.
We used to think that we would focus solely on technology, but unfortunately that is not enough.
We have to talk a lot to customers and interested parties about how they, the owners and users of websites (systems), need to change and improve in order to avoid being the weakest link in the defence of their system.
We’ll talk it over with you, too, if we need to.