As the risk of cyber attacks and their impact grows, cybersecurity has now become a core pillar within the organisation. But, whilst it’s easy to say that it’s important, demonstrating this in practice can be difficult. For this, it requires cybersecurity to be embedded into the culture of the business.
Here are four ways you can do this:
1. Take a top-down approach
Cybersecurity should be the responsibility of everyone in the company, but for employees to take this seriously, they need to see it being played out at the top. That means leadership needs to take a firm stance on the importance of cybersecurity and lead by example, showing that they are focused on playing their role keeping the business safe.
2. Invest in staff training
To help employees take their responsibilities towards cybersecurity seriously, it’s important to arm them with the skills and knowledge to identify potential cyber threats and maintain safe and secure systems. This includes training around social engineering, and understanding the importance of installing software updates as soon as they are required.
3. Encourage open communication
For a cybersecurity culture to really be embedded in an organisation, it needs to be talked about regularly. There should be open communication about the importance of keeping the business and customers safe, opportunities for employees to ask questions and an open environment where staff aren’t afraid to report security incidents.
4. Create a secure development lifecycle (SDL)
If you are a SaaS company or technology provider, it’s even more crucial to embed a cybersecurity culture to ensure you gain customer trust. When new software or systems are released within your organisation, it’s important to have an SDL in place – processes and activities that need to be performed to ensure you are able to implement a security culture. This includes things like security requirements, threat modelling, and security testing activities.