How To Build A Cybersecurity Culture

The biggest cause of any Cybersecurity breach is human error. Creating a culture where Cybersecurity is at the heart of business is key to being successful in today’s modern world. Here’s how you can build a Cybersecurity culture.

Make cybersecurity part of the organisation’s fabric

Cybersecurity Ventures projects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15% per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

Building a Cybersecurity culture is about infusing safety into the organisation’s fabric, so every employee is constantly reminded of their role and responsibility to keep the business safe.

Don’t just off load your Cybersecurity needs and concerns onto your IT department, Cybersecurity needs to be every employee’s responsibility and adequate training needs to be given to all, not just the technical team.

Conduct tabletop exercises and fire drills

You should simulate, either through scenario planning or tabletop exercises, what should happen in the event of a real breach. You don’t want the first time you’ve thought about a cyberattack to be in the middle of a cyberattack.

Make it someone’s job to be the ‘culture owner.’ 

This isn’t necessarily the CIO or CISO, but a non-technical executive who specifically owns the actions necessary to change behaviour and drive values, attitudes, and beliefs. One culture owner created campaigns that resonated with employees, including using famous movie titles to reflect important cybersecurity messages. Other training programs incorporated fun icons and famous memes to drive engagement and encourage discussion among employees.