How to Guarantee Strong Cybersecurity Teams in Your Organization

Cybersecurity has become one of the most important focus points for organizations lately. Crucial digital assets (such as financial and sensitive client information) are at constant risk of being vulnerated by malicious actors who seek to break in internal systems and cause enormous loss to the affected organization, in return of a financial incentive. As CISOs and cybersecurity leaders around the world keep pushing in with new and more sophisticated cybersecurity strategies to protect their organizations, cybersecurity teams have become critical to support their initiatives and be prepared to respond once a cyberattack does occur.

To help you make sure you are building and maintaining strong cybersecurity teams in your organization, we have gathered a list advice you might want to consider!

1. Invest in a Strong Cybersecurity Culture:

By creatinga strong cybersecurity culture in your organization, you will be able to have team players deeply compromised with your security goals and objectives. Communicating the current and upcoming risks, as well as the importance of keeping security behaviors and attitudes, will allow them to actively assume their role in cybersecurity and prepare them to respond in an effective and timely matter when an attack does take place.

In our blog “How to Build a Cyber Culture in Your organization”, you will be able to find interesting tips which, once put into practice, will help you accomplish this important objective.

2. Empower and Engage Your Employees:

According to a study conducted by IPA (Britain’s Involvement & ParticipationAssociation), over 22% of data breaches result from employee malicious activities, while Stanford research showed 88% of data breaches are caused by human error. Gaining your employees’ commitment to the organization’s security is crucial but won’t be properly maintained if they are not motivated in doing so. For this reason, building on your team members’ engagement is fully essential.

Members of your cybersecurity teams need to feel listened to, supported, and guided through their daily activities. They need to feel engaged and empowered with the cause they are working towards, and there exists several ways you can ensure your organization is meeting such needs. These include building a safe environment where mistakes are tolerated when lessons are learned, where they are empowered to make decisions (depending on their current level of responsibility) and can openly communicate their needs to their superiors.

3. Highlight the Importance of Cybersecurity:

An important part of building and strengthening your organization’s cybersecurity culture is openly communicating the “why”. By clearly understanding “why” cybersecurity is important in your organization, as well as each of the tasks assumed by each of your team players, you will be giving them a purpose to work towards and a stronger sense of responsibility.

4. Train and Educate:

Motivate your employees’ constant learning by having frequent training sessions on cybersecurity risks, tools, and trends. Encourage them to stay updated with the latest news in cybersecurity and how these might eventually have an impact on their organization. Moreover, test your cybersecurity experts’ skills and knowledge through simulation games and quizzes.

5. Invest in Career Development:

As sophisticated cyber-attacks keep emerging, cybersecurity teams need to be wellprepared to respond. For such reason, investing in your team members’ careerdevelopment becomes more than crucial, and in the long run will end up resulting in outstanding benefits for your organization’s wellbeing. There exist a bunch of interesting cybersecurity career paths your employees might be interested in depending on their current knowledge and pursuits, and supporting them through their professional development will for sure boost the amount of knowledge and skills available in your cybersecurity teams.

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Sources:

Editors, Forbes Technology Council. “CouncilPost: 14 Effective Tips for Creating and Sustaining Strong CybersecurityTeams.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Jan. 2020,https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/01/10/14-effective-tips-for-creating-and-sustaining-a-strong-cybersecurity-team/?sh=6efc86951a2e.

Pratt, Mary K. “Seven Strategies for Building aGreat Security Team.” CSO Online, CSO, 27 Sept. 2021,https://www.csoonline.com/article/3633595/seven-strategies-for-building-a-great-security-team.html.

Sjouwerman, Stu. “Stanford Research: 88% ofData Breaches Are Caused by Human Error.” Blog,https://blog.knowbe4.com/88-percent-of-data-breaches-are-caused-by-human-error.