INFORMATION SECURITY: YOUR PEOPLE, YOUR FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

Robert Half is a human resource consulting firm specializes in areas of Accountemps, Robert Half Finance & Accounting, Robert Half Management Resources, Robert Half Technologies and many more.

- Eddie Borrero

A company can put together as many technology solutions or policies as it likes, but, in the end, its people are the most important element in information security. If the employees in your organization don’t feel personally invested in improving your organization’s security, your defenses will always be lacking.

Firms that inspire in their employees a security mind set and personal sense of responsibility for keeping the business secure are definitely on the right track. According to research by Ponemon Institute, the average total cost of a data breach is more than US $3.6 million, and one in four organizations can expect to experience a breach. Also, cybersecurity breaches are only getting larger in terms of the number of files and accounts—and people—affected.

Your business may need to experiment a bit before discovering the secret recipe for turning your team members into information security advocates, but the effort is well worth it. At Robert Half, we’re taking steps to motivate our global employee base to view information security as a priority. We’re continually looking for new ways to engage our staff, so they want to get involved in helping the business adopt and apply best practices.

To turn your workforce into a team of information security advocates, you need to make security personal to them. This means helping them understand that lax security practices don’t just impact the mat work, they also hit the mat home.