What Is Data Security Awareness? How Do You Demonstrate Security Awareness? ![]() Cybersecurity Professional Skill Development Training.Enterprise Security Professional Certification & Training.Cyber Security Gap Analysis and Roadmap Development.Cybersecurity Posture and Maturity Assessment.Information Security Risk Management Advisory.Cyber Security Professional of the Year 2016.Cyber Security Professional of the Year 2015.Cyber Security Company of the Year 2015.The alternative becomes less attractive by the hour - do nothing and watch your organization crumble to a halt by ransomware, data theft or business interruption.įorbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. By assessing employees’ security awareness, behaviors and culture, organizations can adapt their policies and training programs to the constantly changing threat landscape. Security culture is a critical, need-to-have asset in the security toolbox. You get the idea - understanding where you are provides you guidance on where you can improve. If your organization needs improvement in the dimension of "cognition," then you could assess your security awareness program. For instance, if you realize that you need to up your game in terms of "norms," then you might consider implementing a security champions program or a mentorship program. Then compare your survey results to those of other industries and build a plan for improvement. Start by understanding where you are as a benchmark. These seven dimensions are measurable via a security culture survey. Responsibilities: How employees perceive their role as a critical factor in helping or harming security.Norms: Employee knowledge and adherence to unwritten rules of conduct related to security.Compliance: Employee knowledge and support of security policies.Communication: How well communication channels promote a sense of belonging and offer support related to security issues and incident reporting.Cognition: Employee understanding, knowledge and awareness of security issues and activities. ![]() Behaviors: Employee actions that impact security directly or indirectly.Attitudes: Employee feelings and beliefs about security protocols and issues.There are some very practical and actionable steps organizations can take to develop and nurture a strong security culture across seven distinct dimensions: A process that is fueled by a relentless - and consistent - drumbeat to help employees understand exactly how their daily behaviors have the potential to protect or threaten corporate data.īuilding And Supporting A Strong Security Culture That means an ongoing process that is driven not from the IT department but from the top of the organization down. As we indicated earlier, the key to building strong security behaviors is building a strong security culture. It’s no wonder that employees are not only confused but burned out by changing and hard-to-understand directives. Over the past 30 years, security experts have trained employees to do everything from changing their passwords every 30 days to not changing them unless they’ve been impacted by a breach to limiting the number of characters to only numbers or letters to requiring all kinds of numbers, symbols, letters and cases. Even something as seemingly simple as using effective passwords has historically been a mishmash of contradictory and changing communications. It’s not surprising that there is so much confusion among employees about what they should and shouldn’t be doing to protect company information. Ongoing awareness, understanding and appropriate action are required to ensure organizations’ data is safe and that employee and customer data is not compromised. As we know, threats like ransomware can go undetected and do damage for months before detection, even in top-performing organizations. They feel like they would not be able to detect if their computers were compromised. Covid-19-themed phishing campaigns impersonated trusted brands like Netflix, Microsoft and the CDC to commit fraud, exposing "deeper, more significant cracks in enterprise security."Ĭustomers of my company (KnowBe4) tell us there is an overt hunger for more focused security information and an awareness that they may have gaps in their knowledge. More than half (51%) were victims of email phishing attacks. ![]() Security Magazine cited a study in which 46% percent of respondents experienced "at least one security incident" since the pandemic started. As many organizations transitioned to a work-from-home model, new security issues and concerns emerged, with communication and education becoming somewhat more challenging. Not surprisingly, during the pandemic, some industries and organizations have seen their security cultures stagnate or decline.
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