Human factors engineering has been a well-known practice since the early 1930s. This field of engineering is highly applicable and currently studied in relation to cybersecurity. Understanding the psychological components of human factors can help to resolve several concerns in the cybersecurity field. From employee recruitment and retention to understanding burnout for SOC analysts, human factors are an emerging trend in cybersecurity. By researching and understanding the principles of human factors, cybersecurity professionals can improve security by design, reduce cognitive overload with security tooling, and improve awareness of behavioral analysis techniques.  

In this article, we explore human factors principles – including cognition, perception, behavioral psychology, cognitive workloads and unconscious bias – and their applicability to cybersecurity programs.