What is Human Security?

There is no such thing as human security. As humans we need to be trained on security, we must educate ourselves, or educate those that we live or work with. A phrase I once heard was “ There is no patch for human stupidity. ”

As a phrase I don’t like or agree with. However, I do agree that has humans we can and are the weakest link in any form of security, including our own. This is not that we are stupid, it is that as humans, we can and will have an emotional attachment to something, we will agree with something, or we can be programmed to believe in something.

Example: We may well give money to a group like an aid charity from an advert on TV or social media, following on from some form of event or conflict, that may well pull at our heart strings, but end up going to what looks like a legitimate aid charity website that is bogus, and as a result you give them your card or bank details and then they steal money, or, you make a donation to a fake organisation that appears to be legitimate. Resulting in your money going to a scammer and not the charity.

Human Security is making us (“Humans”) remember the SAO (Situation, Action, Outcome) be aware of what we are doing, is the action correct, and is the outcome what we expect. In the above example giving a donation to a charity.

Situation: Giving money to the charity, what charity is it? do you recognise the charity? you would not give money to (scammer bob the thief), but, if it was a charity that was giving aid to children and that was close to your heart then it may be easier to get your money.

Action: Researching the site, checking that they are a registered charity, you could google the charity, you could go to the government website (“ https://www.gov.uk/find-charity-information  “) , you could do a search using the charity name and scam, fake, bogus  or you could do a search using the term scam charities list.

An interesting article: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/watchdog-warns-charities-and-the-public-to-protect-themselves-against-fraudsters-amid-pandemic

Outcome: After doing the research on the charities legitimacy, and deciding on what to give IE a one off, or monthly donation, the outcome will be one of two ways, either you will give a donation, or you won’t give a donation.