Company culture is one of those intangible qualities of an organization that can be difficult to quantify. Describing it involves describing the values, assumptions, and norms that ultimately drive employees to make decisions in their everyday work lives. Building a defined company culture is challenging, but it pays dividends for your organization, especially when centered around cybersecurity. Employee turnover rates are high compared to historical numbers, and high turnover correlates to an increased risk of a security breach. By building a company culture of cybersecurity awareness, you can prevent some insider incidents from happening and increase the likelihood that potential incidents are caught and reported before they occur. Here are some of the ways you can utilize your company culture to positively influence your insider risk management program.
Increased Employee Awareness Prevents Mistakes
It’s often cited that the majority of insider threat incidents are caused due to employee mistakes or negligence. These mistakes are a direct result of a company not valuing the importance of employee education. However, the good news is that this situation is easily preventable by placing a high priority on employee training and encouraging awareness of cybersecurity issues and your corporate policies. With knowledge on their side, employees can learn to avoid and report potential social engineering attacks, do their jobs with a keen eye towards securing critical data, and generally following best practices.
Build Employee Trust with Transparency
The link of trust between employees and their organization is foundational in developing an effective insider risk management program. This is especially important if your organization elects to utilize technology such as user and data activity monitoring. You need to be transparent when addressing these topics with your employees. State why monitoring is critical for your security team as well as what exactly will be monitored and how it is being done. Being transparent helps your employees buy in to your program and instills a feeling of trust that should be one of the backbones of your cybersecurity program.
Have an Open-Door Policy Between Your Security Team and Your Employees
It’s easy for the relationship between employees and the security team to devolve into a punitive dynamic. This is counterproductive as it can lead to fewer potential incidents being reported. In addition, employees may be less likely to approach the team with any questions they may have about policies. The best way to combat this dynamic is by promoting an open-door policy between staff and the security team. Employees should feel at ease when reporting potential out-of-policy behavior that they witness or asking questions about the rationale behind certain policy rules. And the security team should be willing to impart their knowledge on employees that are looking for it. It builds a stronger bond between the two and can be greatly beneficial in protecting your organization from threats.
Contact ITMG to Assess Your Current Capabilities and Develop Strategies and Protocols Designed to Help Your Company Mitigate Your Insider Risk
ITMG is an industry leader in helping organizations throughout the United States strengthen their insider risk management programs and secure sensitive data and intellectual property. Our team of bona fide experts has the real-world experience necessary to plan out and create holistic security solutions tailored to the special needs and risks in your industry. Contact ITMG today to learn more about how we can help! You can also visit our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages for more updates and insights into the world of insider risk management.
