With our focus on managing the perimeter within we think a lot about the role of human and organizational behavior as well as technology in managing the insider threat. So it was great to discover that he folks at Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College are doing a lot of great research on human element of IT security.
One of their pieces Embedding Information Security into the Organization discusses the research they did in 2006 examining the security and organizational challenges facing executives of large multinational firms. They found that “Organizational culture is particularly important for security, given that an organization’s overall security is the result of each individual’s actions”. In addition they found “ One pivotal factor in creating a culture of security is getting the right “tone at the top.”
As important as those fundamental organizational principals are to good security, technology obviously also plays a key role. Some of the more interesting insights in the article are on how investment decisions are made: “Security will be particularly valued if it can help improve performance and reliability. This approach can take hold if the security group works with other parts of the organization to build security into business strategies and plans.” Pretty sound advice for any company.
