Here's a way of framing conversations we've found works for making virtually any topic understandable and relatable at an executive level. Think of it as a simple filter or formula you can use to improve your executive communication:
Information informs your story/narrative, which is then interpreted clearly and honestly via the metrics and anecdotes you use, leading to insights and future direction. We know that formula might feel obvious; you might have even thought something along the lines of, “Well, duh!” But now be honest with yourself and remember that you (like most people) very likely tend to try to dazzle with details. And that's the problem. Stories might include details, but details are not stories. Context might include details, but details don't provide context on their own. Any time you provide a data point, you need to clearly state what that means and why that matters in the grand scheme of things. This is where most security executives fail.
If you aren't clearly telling your own story and articulating what your data and details imply, then your audience is left to interpret things for themselves. They form an alternate story in their minds, and that's not usually to your benefit.
If you aren't clearly telling your own story and articulating what your data and details imply, then your audience is left to interpret things for themselves. They form an alternate story in their minds, and that's not usually to your benefit.
They make assumptions, and those assumptions might not align with reality. That's why it's so important to have a clear understanding of the information you need to share and the story that it tells. After you understand your information and broader narrative, you can work on underpinning that story with relevant metrics and anecdotes. And then you can point back to your metrics, anecdotes, and story to bring your audience to the ultimate conclusions. This is your chance to celebrate your successes, set future expectations, gain feedback, solicit support, and more.
Telling the Human Side of the Story
When it comes to cybersecurity, there is a story about securing your organization's future by providing long-term resilience and sustainability. And, yeah, there are certainly aspects of that story that are technology-centric, but there are also many, many aspects that are people-centric. When leaders hyper focus on the technology side of the story, they risk forgetting that technology is only part of the equation. And they risk forgetting that humans are at the center of everything.
Much of the cybersecurity narrative revolves around technology. We talk about firewalls being bypassed, data being leaked, or servers being hacked; we show images of cybercriminals in dark rooms surrounded by screens filled with indecipherable computer code. When that's the picture of cybersecurity that our people get, it is very easy for them to feel overwhelmed. Making human-layer vulnerabilities and defenses a frequent and explicit part of your organization's cybersecurity conversations paves the way for more human-centric policies, processes, and technologies.
By consistently referring to the importance of the human layer, you can reinforce the need to engage people. It gives everyone the message that your people share a proactive role helping protect the organization. It opens up more meaningful conversations and helps pave the way to gain buy-in for initiatives that will help foster a stronger security culture.
What's the Cost of Not Getting This Right?
Organizations can't afford to neglect the importance of the human side of cybersecurity. As we mentioned in Chapter 1, organizations have been investing more and more each year trying to combat cybercrime and data breaches, and yet the breaches keep on coming. In fact, as we showed in Figure 1.1, the rise in breaches is outpacing the global spend on cybersecurity “solutions.” Why is that spend not paying off? The reason becomes clear when you look at where the security spend is going.
Figure 2.1 illustrates the problem well. We know that 85 percent of data breaches are being caused by social engineering or human error (Verizon, 2021). But, when you look at organizational spending on security, it becomes clear that leaders have been placing their faith (as reflected by spend) in the wrong areas. Organizations have been focusing on an outdated perimeter-based model of security—one that virtually ignores the human element or hopes that technology-based defenses will suddenly become effective at addressing social engineering and human error in a meaningful way.
Figure 2.1 Cybersecurity spending has effectively ignored the main cause of data breaches
Does the Breach Problem Mean Security Awareness Has Failed?
At this point, you might be thinking something like, “But I bet most of those organizations that were breached weren't totally ignoring the human side of things. Surely they were doing some form of awareness training. So what gives? Doesn't that mean that focusing on humans hasn't been effective?”
That's a great question.
The answer isn't that focusing on humans has been ineffective; what's ineffective are the traditional methods of security awareness and training. Traditional awareness programs focused on sending people information about current threats, security best practices, and policy expectations, and then simply expecting people to magically do the right thing. Every parent or teacher knows that simply exposing people to information and expectations doesn't change behavior, but somehow the security industry duped itself into believing that it would work for us. Obviously it hasn't.
The entirety of this book is about taking real control of your human-layer defenses. This will require you to expand your thinking about what security awareness training should look like.
We'll begin that journey in Chapter 3, “The Foundations of Transformation”!
Let's think about this for a minute. Less than 3 percent of security spending is focused on the human layer, but more than 85 percent of breaches are traced back to humans. That stark contrast between the problem area and where organizations are focusing is shocking.
Less than 3 percent of security spending is focused on the human layer, but more than 85 percent of breaches are traced back to humans.
For decades, security leaders have known that humans are the most enticing and vulnerable attack surface; nonetheless, we, as an industry, have tried everything but doing the actual work needed to improve our situation.
And here we are.
Cybercriminals Are Doubling Down on Their Attacks Against Your Employees
Over the past few years, we've seen a meteoric rise in attacks seeking to bypass technology by targeting humans. And it's working. Ransomware continues to make headlines due to large-scale attacks like those that targeted Colonial Pipeline (Fung, 2021), JBS Foods (Reuters, 2021), and Kaseya