IT Brief: Help desks emerge as cybersecurity weak spot amid rising attacks 

Bojan Simic, Chief Executive of HYPR and a FIDO Alliance board member, warns that IT help desks are increasingly targeted by attackers using social engineering tactics. These tactics often involve leveraging stressful scenarios, such as an executive locked out of their account just before boarding a flight, to pressure help desk agents into bypassing or overlooking security protocols. “The help desk shouldn’t be the weakest link; it should be the first line of defence. That means moving beyond guesswork and adopting identity verification that confirms who someone is, versus what they know or the device they’re using. With phishing-resistant, standards-based verification built into support workflows, agents stop being human lie detectors and start being defenders,” said Simic.