Is your business security culture up to speed?

Security Awareness is a business enabler

"Security is everyone's business" is one of the most important messages when implementing a successful security program.  No one person is capable of protecting your business from the multitude of threats that exists today

I have seen government agencies and private businesses invest significant funding into access control systems for buildings, securing all entry points and providing every employee a badge.  This is a great step in the right direction, but is let down where agencies, managers and businesses fail to properly communicate and train their employees to reinforce the need for vigilance that supports the technology put in place to make workplaces safe and secure.  Due to this lack of training, an employee may be feeling friendly on their way into work and hold the door open for the unknown person behind them (Don’t laugh, I have personally observed this done in a range of government agencies and private businesses).  Later on that day, another employee in the receiving department is tired of the knocks at the delivery door so they just prop it open.  Fire doors are propped open to allow ease of access for smokers. An employee may have observed a customer leaving your store with stock without paying but does nothing to prevent its loss or alert management. Unfortunately, these are real, security breach, situations and only a couple of the many examples.

It is critical to have a solid security program in place along with a strong security culture in your place of business.  When these two are hand in hand, the success of the program is dramatically enhanced.  A strong security culture is integrated into the day to day actions and decision making of each of your employees.  This security culture must start at the top in order for it to be enforced throughout the organization.  The security policies and procedures should be designed so that they will be adhered to by everyone that interacts with your business; executives, employees, contractors, vendors and visitors.

During business hours our people are our first line of defence in identifying what may be out of the ordinary. Technology is coming along but has not gained the human ability to make decisions based on gut feeling or knowing when something just is not quite right.  If your people are not trained and have regular awareness sessions to reinforce the criticality of their security awareness, your agency or business will be vulnerable to the many threats that exist today.

Security awareness is not a cost to business – it is a core part of business resilience. Make security awareness a business enabler in your agency or business today.

Local post office with external door
chocked open

Local post office full office access via
the chocked open door.

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