An organization’s cybersecurity strategy has always included the development of a cybersecurity culture. Analysts, on the other hand, believe that the COVID-19 outbreak spurred a huge shift to remote work, which elevated the issue in the minds of security and non-security professionals alike.
Working from home has rendered companies more vulnerable to cyber threats, according to security experts, and 60% of organizations have seen a moderate to a severe spike in cyberattacks during the epidemic. Cybersecurity Report Card Survey data from Seattle-based threat intelligence firm Domain Tools shows that.
Candy Alexander, president of the non-profit Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) International and CISO of NeuEon Inc., says that when an organization’s risk profile shifts, so must its cybersecurity culture
According to Alexander, “We need to identify the new risks, define the new risks, and ensure that that’s linked with the company plan.
Alexander emphasized that responding to a changing risk profile is not solely the domain of security specialists. It’s time for us to look outside ourselves and not ourselves. The company’s cybersecurity culture must encompass all levels of the organization’s employees in order to be effective.
In fact, fostering a culture of cybersecurity is critical for both the organization and the individual. “You must also design it with your customers in mind. Focusing on just one part of the ecosystem is not enough “According to Microsoft’s Aanchal Gupta, vice president of Azure Security,
What is a cybersecurity culture?
Cybersecurity culture, according to Forrester Research principal analyst “inan Budge”, all employees are enthused and driven to improve cybersecurity, have a clear understanding of its importance, and see themselves as a part of the solution.
Encouraging a culture of cybersecurity also ensures that staff are aware of potential threats and know how to deal with or report them. It’s via building a strong line of defence against cyber-attacks and data breaches that this increased knowledge benefits an organization, according to Alexander.
What Is the Importance of a Strong Cybersecurity Culture?
In the context of cybersecurity, “cybersecurity culture” refers to a person’s ingrained attitudes, assumptions, conventions, and values, as well as the context in which those attitudes and values are expressed in their daily actions.
Strong cybersecurity culture is characterized by several traits, including the following:
● One of their top goals is cybersecurity.
● There is complete utilization of the new cybersecurity tools that have been developed.
● There is no doubt about the dangers that employees endure.
● There is no opposition to the adoption of cybersecurity policies.
● It doesn’t take a lot of time to recover from a cybersecurity catastrophe.
An organization’s ability to effectively defend itself against cyberattacks is greatly enhanced when its cybersecurity culture is well-established, and everyone is working toward the same common goal.
The difficulties of fostering a cyberculture
However, the road to establishing a cybersecurity culture — one that enhances corporate operations while reducing risks — can be difficult.
One of the biggest problems is a lack of proper funding for security. Building cyberculture without executive buy-in is another thing entirely. Forrester’s Budge listed the following as additional difficulties that security personnel must deal with.
● Critics of security: It is critical to have a “brand of security” to cultivate a cybersecurity culture. Security teams must overcome the fact that they are not always accepted or understood by striving to improve people’s perceptions of security.
● Conflict: Creating a security culture can be difficult because of the “toxicity” that often exists amongst security staff, according to Budge. This has a negative effect on the entire firm.
● The “proper stuff” is missing from the CISO: Top security officer must be capable of taking on the role. Getting a CISO who can lead and establish a cybersecurity culture while also prioritising it is going to be a difficult task for many businesses.
Five best techniques for fostering a cyberculture
Strategy and tactics are essential to creating an effective security culture. As a result, experts agreed that it is a journey that requires defining the goal and finding out how to get there. It necessitates the ability to work with others. To successfully establish a security culture, it is important to take an approach that is empathic, personable, and relevant to your audience, work closely with the product and technical teams, and match the security culture with corporate values.
As Budge put it, “People think of security as boring and are unwilling to care about it, therefore it is vital to develop an emotional connection to make it effective.”
Information security professionals who want to develop a company-wide cybersecurity culture should follow these five best practises.
1. Raise everyone up around a common goal
Your security is only as strong as its weakest link, according to a well-known cybersecurity adage. Weaknesses in your cybersecurity culture can come from a variety of sources, including phishing emails sent to executives as well as malware installed on the computers of front-line employees.
To reach this goal, it’s helpful to take a step back and establish the larger picture of your cybersecurity objectives and how a culture of cybersecurity makes it feasible to achieve these goals. C-level personnel should lead the way by demonstrating how to put the organization’s goal into reality, as forcing a culture shift with words alone rarely works.
2. Make it centred on the individual
“Human-centric” security programmes are typically misunderstood as requiring all employees to complete mandatory security awareness training, according to Budge.
As she put it, “Truly, you need to begin with the people.”
Stakeholder analysis is looking at how people behave and what obstacles they face, then figuring out how to address those issues.
For each stakeholder community, “you design your security culture efforts,” Budge added.
3. Make an investment in cyber-awareness training
Getting about in today’s world of cybercrime is a difficult task. Tech-savvy personnel who can easily troubleshoot daily hardware and software difficulties usually only grasp the hazards they confront on an everyday basis on a surface level.
Staff negligence accounts for 88% of data breaches, according to Stanford University researchers. Lack of cybersecurity understanding may be to blame.
There is good news in that user education and training can successfully prevent employees from becoming a cybersecurity weak link.
Aside from PowerPoint presentations, user awareness training should include activities like audience participation and mock phishing exercises for maximum effectiveness.
4. Invest in the Right Security Tools for Your Situation
Cyber-attacks can’t be thwarted solely by using security measures; a multi-layered approach is necessary. “The human side of cybersecurity” should be supplemented with other cybersecurity tools, according to Helming.
According to Microsoft’s Gupta, investing in SIEM solutions that use machine learning techniques can help empower security operations centre staff by improving their detection and response capabilities, increasing the signal-to-noise ratio, and allowing security analysts to focus on the threats that matter.
However, it is vital to keep in mind that the cybersecurity skills deficit is only becoming worse as technology advances and cyber threats escalate. Gupta went on to say that to keep a competitive edge, it is critical to hire, train, and retain a diverse pool of cyber talent.
We must ensure that our teams are as diverse in their problem solving as the challenges themselves, she said, citing research that shows diverse teams make better business judgments.
5. An IT Managed Services Provider That Is Reliable
A multi-layered approach is required to prevent cyberattacks, not just security measures. Helming believes that “the human side of cybersecurity” should be reinforced with other cybersecurity instruments.
As Microsoft’s Gupta explains, machine learning-based SIEM solutions may empower security operations centre staff by enhancing detection and response capabilities, raising the signal-to noise ratio, and allowing security analysts to focus on the threats that are most important.
As technology evolves and cyber risks increase, it is important to keep in mind that the cybersecurity skills gap is only becoming worse. As Gupta stated, it is
vital to hire, train and retain a diversified pool of cyber talent in order to maintain a competitive advantage.
She cited studies that suggests that diverse teams make better business decisions, saying that we must ensure that our teams are as diverse in their problem solving as the difficulties they face.
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