What is a security culture, and how do you build one?

Humans interact with different types of software solutions in different ways, which leads to errors or gaps that threat actors bank on when they try to breach into organizations' digital environments and steal sensitive data for their own financial gain. In fact, human error has played a major role in 88% of successful cyberattacks. 

Because both organizations and their employees need to be better prepared to prevent and handle cyberattacks, change has to start from the top. Organizational leadership should foster a mentality that security is the foremost priority for the company, and every activity or development should revolve around this core goal. 

Developing a security culture and getting employees’ cooperation is crucial to ensuring iron-clad security for organizational data. Let's take a look at what a security culture is, why it's important, and the key factors to keep in mind while building one for your company. 

What is a security culture?

A security culture refers to a set of practices, beliefs, and convictions that are fostered throughout an organization to ensure that everyone upholds security measures for the data, employees, customers, and partners in their organization. While security culture most commonly refers to data and information security, it can also collectively refer to the identity and access security of a company’s stakeholders.

A robust security culture puts security at the forefront of an organization's policy and requires all employees to follow good practices while performing any action on behalf of the company. Following these policies ensures that the organization is guarded from external threats while also minimizing human error. 

Why is a security culture important?

Having a security culture in place helps an organization in many ways, ranging from better compliance with regulatory bodies to improving customers' trust. Let's take a look at some of these reasons. 

Human error can't be averted. Humans are often the weakest links in any security context. With threat actors becoming smarter in creating attacks, it's possible that malicious emails or other forms of communication often slip through without the employee noticing. If they continue to engage with the content without realizing the nature of the content, they put the entire organization at risk of a breach. Developing a security culture and providing sufficient training will make employees more aware of such scenarios. 

It ensures compliance. Now more than ever, there's more awareness about secure handling practices. In fact, new regulations are created all the time to ensure that organizations are taking the necessary measures to handle their data safely. By creating a strong security culture, organizations can pass any audits that could be conducted on their company.

It leads to better technological awareness. Because newer threats and prevention methods are always evolving, educating users about the threats they face and the protection measures that have been set up is crucial. Employees should be aware of the software solutions that the company uses. This can be disseminated to users through a security awareness program to ensure compliance.

It improves brand reputation. Setting up a strong security culture and enforcing adherence to it will help your brand’s reputation. If your company is a pioneer in following secure practices in a certain region or industry, your reputation improves, and this in turn increases your credibility. 

It builds customer trust. When your customers select a brand to do business with, they consider many factors. Data security has become one of those deciding factors in going with a certain brand. When you publish information publicly about the practices followed and your employees' expertise in data management and security, they'll develop better trust and opt for your brand. 

Crucial elements for a strong security culture

To successfully develop and follow a security-first approach, there are certain core elements that have to be taken into account. Let's take a look at them. 

Follow the top-down approach

For any policy to be effectively followed across the organization, it has to be embraced by senior management. Implementing security policies for the C-suite members first and then asking them to announce or publicize them among other employees works wonders. If the C-suite actively uses secure practices, other employees will also be more inclined to follow them because it serves as a source of encouragement.

Hold employees accountable

By ingraining secure practices into the company's culture, you can get your employees to follow them diligently. Emphasize the sensitive nature of the data that they’re handling and the consequences that could befall the company and their customers if there's an exposure or breach of data. You can also create a reward system to ensure there's enough incentive when employees follow the guidelines that the management has implemented. 

Formulate clear policies and guidelines

Implementation of a policy is only as good as the guidelines that make up the policy. To ensure steadfast execution across the organization, the policy's guidelines must be clearly defined. Make sure to include sufficient details regarding each security practice and the fallback measures that will be taken in case a breach is detected. Outline these guidelines clearly to ensure that there are no doubts when an employee needs to report something suspicious. 

How do you create a security culture?

Implementing a security culture for your company is most effective when it's done in a step-by-step and phased manner. Let's discuss the process that many organizations have found to be most effective.

Assess security awareness

The first step to formulating an efficient policy is assessing your employees’ current level of awareness about your security practices. While this may vary across the company, getting a general pulse of the situation will give you a clear picture of what areas need improvement. 

As part of this assessment, it's vital to list the software solutions used for email security, cloud security, end-point security, and more. Based on this information, you can decide to train your employees on how to use these tools. If your organization's needs have changed or evolved, you can use this as an exercise to evaluate other solutions that suit your requirements better.

Formulate the new policies

Based on your assessment of your company's needs and the current awareness levels of your employees, you can draft new policies and guidelines. Incorporate all aspects of security into your policy to ensure that there are no gaps and no aspect of your cybersecurity plan is left overlooked. Be very specific about what policies and practices you'd like employees to follow. 

A minute level of specificity helps build a strong security culture because it will require certain behavioral changes from your employees. Knowing exactly what needs to be done in certain situations helps them follow the outlined guidelines and policies. 

Policy announcement by leadership

How you choose to announce these policy changes makes a huge difference in how effectively it's followed across the company. Making a bit of noise about it and leading by example ensures that employees welcome these changes with the required amount of seriousness and excitement. 

Senior management should convey how these decisions were made, with clear explanations of any changes to these processes. IT admins can implement policies for management first, and then use specific scenarios to educate users about how the policies have bettered their security posture. You can also impart information about how these changes have helped avert any threats that the company may have faced. 

During the announcement, management should also inform employees who the security person in charge will be and what authority they have so that there's no confusion going forward. 

Customize trainings and workshops

Once changes about these assessments have been communicated to your employees, organize workshops and training sessions to impart the required knowledge needed to follow these practices. Make them as engaging as possible to ensure participation from all of your employees. Without overwhelming them with too many new things, start slow and introduce them to the policy decisions in a phased manner. This helps them implement the new practices one by one. 

Ensure that the material used in the training is available in a central repository so that employees can refer to it when they have a question or they're not sure what to do in a specific scenario. 

Conduct assessments through simulation

Once all users have been educated about the new policies, it's important to test the efficacy of the training through regular assessments. Instead of conducting one-time tests, surprise employees with simulations to see if they follow the guidelines. They should also have sufficient information to report any suspicious incidents so the IT admin can take necessary action to prevent any security incidents.

These simulations can take the form of phishing emails or voice calls where someone prominent within the company is impersonated. Based on the employees’ cumulative responses, you can decide whether further training is required or if any policy changes need to be made. Continuous assessment and iteration is crucial to ensure that your company is adapting to evolving cybersecurity trends.

Strategies to build a robust security culture

While there are multiple methods you can use to build a security culture, there are certain key strategies that help sustain it for the long term.

Put security at the forefront

To make sure that a robust security culture is followed in your company, it has to be ingrained into the core of your company's principles. Your own work activities should follow mandated security practices to ensure that data is never compromised. This includes everything from software development cycles, sales calls, customer data handling, product support, and after-sales retention. All communications and activities must be done keeping this in mind.

Stay aware of security trends

Once you’ve appointed a security officer for your company, they should be given the responsibility of staying ahead of the evolving security landscape. This way, there's someone always on the lookout for what can be improved and what security gaps can be addressed. Developing a security culture is a continuous process and needs regular intervention. Staying on top of industry standards helps ensure a scalable culture.

Educate employees about the positive impact

While employees will follow secure practices when they’re enforced across the company, educating them about the positive impact their actions will have is important. Knowing that their actions are adding to the value of the company, increasing their customers' data security, and enhancing their brand reputation will be a motivating factor. This will go a long way in ensuring these practices are kept up.

Start with the C-suite employees

The influence of senior management can ease the process of implementing any new change. Any backlash associated with learning a new process will be better accepted if the decision comes from someone senior in the company. Having management involved from the beginning and getting them to announce these decisions with sufficient conviction will help with compliance.

Conduct workshops and trainings

Training programs designed to impart new policies should be engaging. This gets everyone actively involved. Gamifying the learning and assessment processes and providing real-life examples of how security weaknesses can cause issues will give employees more conviction to follow these processes.

Acknowledge and reward employees

If you notice that an employee is upholding the security vision of the company exceptionally well, ensure that they’re recognized and rewarded accordingly. Such recognition will motivate them to do even better. You can get them to conduct sessions that will motivate other employees to step up their game. You can maintain a leaderboard where a weekly or monthly update of the most security-conscious employees in the company can be recognized.

Conduct audits and modify regularly

The efficacy of new practices can only be fully understood over time. Make sure that periodic audits are conducted both internally and externally. The certifications you receive from regulatory bodies, as a result of these audits, also add to your company's brand reputation. Based on the findings from these audits, you can address any gaps you find and see where your employees need more training. Conduct surprise simulations to see if employees uphold the mandated practices.

Wrapping up

A robust security culture is the foundation of a secure organization. While tools and technologies play a critical role, they’re only effective when supported by people who understand, value, and practice good security behavior. With sustained leadership support, engaging education, and continuous feedback, any organization can turn its people into its strongest line of defense.