Security Culture is defined as the ideas, customs, and social behaviors of a group that influence its security.

Security culture can be considered a part of a broader company culture but requires its own specific tasks, objectives and responsibilities to achieve. A positive company culture by itself will not guarantee a strong security culture.

“But why should I care about security culture?” you might be thinking. Your employees may have bad security-related behaviors either acquired on their own or through a lack of organizational focus and discipline. These habits can be hard to break. But in this case, favorably changing employee behaviors by architecting a meaningful and relevant security culture could protect your organization and executives from brand damage, reputational loss, and financial hardship.

Your employees’ knowledge, beliefs, values, and behaviors will be the difference between protection and breach. That’s why focusing on security culture is so important. An organization’s employees are at the center of everything; they can either be easy prey, or they can become an effective human layer of defense.