Making your business cybersecure requires more than just adding safety features. Organizations need to create a culture of cybersecurity, where employees are trained to avoid, recognize and report cybersecurity threats. After all, if employees don’t know how to recognize a security threat, how can they be expected to respond to it?
While it is everyone’s responsibility to be aware of potential cyber threats, a culture of cybersecurity is led by the organization’s leadership. This is essential to ensure adequate protection is in place.
Leadership and accountability: the cornerstones of a cybersecure organization
The commitment and support of an organization’s senior management are key for its cybersecurity program to be successful. This requires two things: leadership and accountability.
Some of the key elements of leadership and accountability include collecting and tracking metrics, allocating resources and communicating with employees.
Did you know? 18% of Canadian businesses were impacted by cybersecurity incidents in 2021, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
- Metrics: Metrics are data points that indicate how secure your IT environment is and how much progress you are making on your cybersecurity program. Tracking metrics allows you to find trends, which may require that actions be taken.
- Resource allocation: Funds allocated to your cybersecurity program should be proportionate to the needs of the program and the risk to the business.
- Communication: Communicating cybersecurity standards and policies to all employees is essential. This helps create a cyber-aware culture.
Because leadership and accountability are so important to the success of an organization’s cybersecurity, they are two of the security controls required for an organization to get CyberSecure Canada certification. To learn more about how to put these into practice and satisfy the certification requirements, take our eLearning modules. These free, self-paced modules were designed so that you can understand them even if you have limited technical knowledge.
Why get your business CyberSecure Canada certified?
Are you ready to take the next step in cybersecurity for your business? Getting CyberSecure certified has many benefits, including:
- limiting the impacts of a cyber incident
- enhancing your competitive advantage and attracting new business
- reassuring your customers and investors that their information is protected
- improving your cybersecurity knowledge
Learn how to get certified by visiting the CyberSecure certification web page.
You may be eligible to receive funding to help offset the costs of implementing cybersecurity controls and getting certified. Visit the Canada Digital Adoption Program web page to learn more.