Building a Security-First Culture

When it comes to cybersecurity, there is a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and trendy buzz phrases flying around. That makes it hard to focus on the truly impactful information that your organization needs to know about.  But with studies repeatedly showing that humans are both the weakest and therefore, most critical, link when it comes to cyber attacks – 75% of data breaches start with human error – it's time to focus on employee security awareness training as a key part of building a security culture.

Key Takeaways

• 75% of data breaches stem from human error, making a security-first culture essential for every department and every role.
• Building a cybersecurity mindset requires executive buy-in, ongoing training, clear policies, and positive reinforcement.
• A trusted MSP partner like Exigent plays a vital role in implementing engaging training, threat monitoring, and continuous improvement.

What is a Security-First Culture?

Businesses driving toward a security culture take specific steps to build a cybersecurity-first mindset within their organization. That means security considerations are integrated into all aspects of the business and are top-of-mind not just for security specialists or tech leaders, but for everyone in the company.  

After years of  research, there are seven agreed on tenets needed to build a security culture:

• Attitude: Build a positive outlook about cybersecurity among employees
• Behavior: Encourage responsible security actions and model good cybersecurity from the top down
• Cognition: This is often where security awareness training comes in by helping your employees understand risks and threats
• Communication: Consistent, clear communication about cybersecurity expectations, challenges, and policies
• Compliance: Speaking of policies, make sure the team is clear on expectations and consequences
• Norms: Battle "unwritten rules" by clearly setting expectations and modeling from the C-suite to the newest employee
• Responsibilities: Make security everyone's job and give them the tools to succeed

Key Aspects of Security Culture

While employees need ongoing, consistent security training to learn how to recognize, react, and mitigate cyber threats such as phishing emails, they also need to understand why security is a shared responsibility. It is easy to point the finger at your organization's IT team or MSP, but without engaged employees, cybersecurity is a losing game.

It needs to be communicated from every level that it is each part of each person's job to understand cybersecurity policies and expectations, and hold the line. That means demonstrating a commitment to security practices, like using strong passwords, reporting suspicious activity, and following security protocols in every department – from finance to marketing to customer service. 

Why is a Security-First Mindset Important for Your Business?

Perhaps the most obvious and important reason why leadership should prioritize cybersecurity awareness is reduced risk to your organization. Many small businesses never recover from the financial, operational, and reputational damage of a cyber attack. Investing time, leadership bandwidth, and resources into creating a security culture has nearly immeasurable ROI.

Additionally, a strong security culture also enhances compliance standings for those organizations in regulated industries, such as financial services, legal firms, and healthcare practices. Failing to take cybersecurity best practices seriously can often lead to significant fines from regulatory agencies.

Any business depends on the trust customers and clients have in it. Brand reputation is a competitive differentiator in most industries, so building and then highlighting our security culture helps build trust with customers by showcasing your business commitment to protecting sensitive information.

Use our free SAT ebook as a guide

How to Create a Security Awareness Culture in Your Business

Like many aspects of cybersecurity, building a security-aware culture can seem complicated and overwhelming. But by following a few steps, you will soon have a more robust security stance that can truly impact your company's future.

Step 1: Get  Buy-In on Security Awareness Culture

The decision to craft a security culture starts with buy-in; your executive team needs to fully understand the why and how of a security-first mindset and then work with your MSP to audit your current security stance and create a plan for embedding security awareness into daily operations.

From there, it is a matter of taking small but meaningful steps toward good security behaviors, starting with that same leadership team. As with any other corporate policies, no one can be exempt or employees will find a way to excuse their behavior. Your c-suite and managers must model expectations, such as using MFA, attending security awareness training, reporting phishing attempts, and avoiding Shadow IT. Additionally, make sure communications from the top consistently include reminders, updates, and celebrations of our security culture milestones.

Step 2: Implement Clear Security Policies & Reinforce Them Regularly

It's no secret that here at Exigent, we feel very strongly about policy development and communication. You simply can't communicate expectations or hold employees accountable without them. We help our clients develop easy-to-understand security policies to govern key cybersecurity systems, such as password hygiene, acceptable use, reporting procedures, and more. Having those policies in place is a key element of a security culture.

But it doesn't stop with simply writing them. You must explain and remind your team about these policies frequently through multiple channels. Introduce policies through town hall presentations, quick videos in internal emails or newsletters, or even recorded webinars. Then continue to highlight the policies and consequences for noncompliance in email reminders, posters in common areas, and team meetings.

Not only do you need to remind your team, but encourage them to participate. Allow them to serve on committees that review security policies and provide a clear path for feedback and suggestions, as well as questions.

Step 3: Make Security Awareness Training Engaging & Ongoing

The days of "one and done" security awareness training are long gone. Today's training programs focus on continuous learning and often use PsySec –positive reinforcements of good behavior. Interactive, humorous training can help your business overcome apathy among employees. The best cybersecurity training methods for employees encourage cybersecurity awareness in the workplace with:

• Gamification (leaderboards, competitions)
• Simulated phishing attacks (real-world exercises)
• Microlearning modules (short, digestible lessons)
• Real-life case studies (show impact of both training and attacks)

Learn more about Security Awareness Training with our short guide

Step 4: Recognize & Reward Good Security Practices

We all know that positive reinforcement helps sustain engagement, from good customer service to any type of training program. When you build your security awareness training schedule, consider aligning it with an incentive program. It doesn't have to be expensive or complicated.

• Give shout-outs to employees who report phishing attempts during team meetings.
• Reward departments with the highest security training participation rates.
• Offer perks (gift cards, extra time off) for security-conscious behavior.

Step 5: Conduct Regular Security Drills & Assessments

As with any cybersecurity solution, you will need a process to test cybersecurity awareness in the workplace with simulated attacks (e.g., phishing campaigns), and evaluate both participation and effectiveness in order to adjust and improve.

Ongoing simulated attacks are likely included in your  security awareness training solution, but your organization should designate someone to track and report on key metrics, such as:

• Phishing test failure rates
• Password hygiene compliance
• Number of reported incidents vs. actual threats
• Participation rates

Best practices aren't focused on punishment but rather on using results to improve future training efforts and enhance security policies.

Step 6: Leverage Managed IT Security Services for Ongoing Support

One of the many benefits of having a managed IT services partner is access to best practices. Not only does your MSP have expertise and connections with leading security vendors, but they also work with many clients in various industries and have learned a thing or two. Lean on that partner to help you evaluate your current situation and then map out a plan for IT security policies and training, solution deployment, and more. Your MSP can help guide you toward a security-first culture and then help you maintain and improve that effort over time.

Depend on your MSP for help with:

• Ongoing security awareness training best practices tailored to your business.
• Threat monitoring and response to stay ahead of cyber risks.
• Incident response planning to ensure employees are prepared for attacks.
• Educational resources and communication support to keep your team informed and engaged.
• Co-managed IT services to support internal IT security efforts.

Still not sure where to start when it comes to creating a security awareness culture?
Schedule a security consultation with Exigent