As a company's cyber risks evolve, so must you. We present 5 tips for creating a cybersecurity culture that protects the company and is meaningful to employees.
Creating a culture of cybersecurity has always been an important element of an organization's cybersecurity strategy. However, the massive shift to remote work induced by COVID-19, followed by the growth of hybrid workplaces, has fundamentally changed the threat landscape.
Cybersecurity policies of the past, and even those instituted at the onset of the pandemic, must be reevaluated in the face of new cybersecurity challenges. Emerging risks must be identified, articulated and ensured to be aligned with business strategy.
Because as risk profiles change, so must an organization's cybersecurity culture. And the behaviors and mindset needed to address evolving security risks - a company's cybersecurity culture - must extend throughout the organization.
What is a culture of cybersecurity and why is it important?
Cybersecurity culture should be seen as a work environment where everyone is concerned about cybersecurity and motivated to improve it; people understand why cybersecurity is important and see themselves as part of the solution.
Fostering a culture of cybersecurity also ensures that employees are aware of what the risks are or could be and understand how to respond to or report them. This awareness, in turn, helps to better protect an organization by creating a strong line of defense against cyberattacks and potential data breaches.
Challenges
The lack of an adequate budget for security is one of the main challenges that every organization faces. Another is the creation of a cybersecurity culture without the support of company executives.
Security has a bad reputation. The "security brand" is an important element in creating a cybersecurity culture. That they are not always respected or understood is a hurdle that security teams must overcome by working to change people's attitudes toward security.
The organization's top security officer must rise to the challenge. Finding a transformational CISO who can lead and build a culture of cybersecurity-and make it a priority-will be a challenge for many companies.
5 best practices for creating culture
Here's an overview of five key best practices to help information security professionals create a culture of cybersecurity throughout the organization.
1. Investing in the right security tools
Security tools are an integral part of a layered defense, but they are not a panacea against cyberattacks. It is advisable to have a thoughtful complement of cybersecurity tools that can augment the "human aspect" of cybersecurity.
Investing in SIEM solutions that use machine learning techniques, for example, can help security operations center personnel increase their detection and response capabilities, improve signal-to-noise ratios and enable security analysts to focus on the threats that matter.
However, it is important to remember that as technology evolves and cyber-attacks increase, the cybersecurity skills shortage is only getting worse. It is imperative to hire, train and retain cyber talent from a wide variety of backgrounds to maintain the edge.
2. Make security accessible
Security managers must begin to work with senior management. Security professionals must understand and align with the business strategy, identify the risks associated with that strategy and communicate them appropriately in business terms.
Once managers understand, in understandable terms, what the risk is and what is being asked of them, they are able to move forward.
3. Promote end-to-end cyber hygiene.
To make a real impact, good cybersecurity practices must come from the C-level and filter through your organization. If your CEO is demonstrating positive cybersecurity practices and setting a good example for the rest of the company, the rest of the team is likely to follow suit.
Cybersecurity must be made a priority and set the tone for the rest of the company.
- Encourage your executives to participate in cybersecurity training courses.
- Apply security policies and processes across the board, regardless of hierarchical level.
- Work with policy makers to adapt procedures based on how they work for board members: if the policies are not working for them, they are probably not working for lower levels of the organization either.
- Assume that it takes time for practices to spread throughout the company: it takes time and effort to evolve the culture.
4. Focus on the human being
Security teams often mistakenly equate having a "human-centered" security program with providing security awareness training that all employees must complete.
You have to start with people. That means analyzing your stakeholders, understanding their behaviors and challenges, and figuring out what needs to change and how to implement that change. Then, based on that, you create your safety culture initiatives for each of those stakeholder communities.
5. Work on a zero trust strategy
Security strategies such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Zero Trust are often discussed among cybersecurity circles as methods to increase access controls, but Zero Trust has been rapidly gaining popularity and many organizations are now looking to adopt this mindset.
A Zero Trust strategy for corporate cybersecurity is a framework that requires all users to be continuously authenticated, authorized and validated before they are granted access to certain enterprise systems or data. This includes both users within the enterprise network and users outside of it, as we enter a permanent phase of hybrid work.
Imposing this model throughout the company means that everyone in the company faces the same security measures, leaving little room for mistakes that could cost you business.
Conclusion
Too few organizations emphasize the importance of security culture, which can lead to poorly educated decision making, compromised systems and cyber breaches.
Developing a culture of cybersecurity is an ongoing process and requires the involvement of all levels of an organization.
By implementing proper cybersecurity practices in your workplace, not only will a culture of security be formed over time, but your organization will be better protected against cyber threats.
