As more and more organizations are becoming digital, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is imperative for businesses to build a culture of cybersecurity. This enables them to be more resilient in the face of growing cyber attacks.

Many of these organizations, especially in the manufacturing sectors, have developed a robust safety culture where every employee is trained, knowledgable, and constantly reminded of ways to stay safe and decrease the chance of accidents. But when it comes to cybersecurity, most organizations do not have a similar culture of security.

Just like building a safety culture, building a cybersecurity culture is a big undertaking and usually takes time. It involves transforming processes, changing mindset, getting support from leadership all the way to the top, and changing the way every employee works.

Many companies think that technology alone will solve cybersecurity problems. They rely on the IT department and in some cases on the security office – if one exists – to mitigate security issues. But the goal of every orgainization should be that everyone must feel personally responsible for keeping the company secure.

Building a culture of cybersecurity involves everyone’s attitudes, beliefs and values that will drive behaviors that will lead to better actions such as not clicking a link on a phishing email or not visiting an unknown website. At the heart of a culture of cybersecurity is getting every employee to execute their day-to-day activities in ways that keep the organization as secure as possible.

For more information on this topic and to gain insights on how to build a culture of cybersecurity, visit the MIT CAMS website at https://cams.mit.edu/research/