An organization's relationship with people can happen in many ways. But how can an ambassador program be one of the best channels for people to engage with information security strategies?
When we talk about information security issues, this type of relationship usually occurs through training, simulations, policies, and announcements.
However, creating a safety culture can be essential to making an awareness strategy more efficient. So a program of ambassadors can help you in that regard.
However, many organizations struggle to get people to identify with digital security issues. This can cause training to have little upright, which can make your organization more vulnerable.
Making everyone participate in information security activities is not an easy task.
Here, let's look at how an ambassador program can help your organization create a security culture.
How an ambassador program can help your organization create a security culture
Let's imagine an operational sector, which has little access to the Internet and acts far from the matrix. These people may feel little recognized within the training programs, often they may not be suited to the reality of the group. And that's where a program of ambassadors can help give these people a voice.
When we talk about a program of ambassadors, we are talking about people who collaborate for a common goal. In this case, disseminate the topics related to information security.
This means that your organization will need to recruit people who represent your culture to help others adopt safer practices.
The main role of these ambassadors is to be a multiplier of organizational culture, bringing the theme of digital security to people's day-to-day lives, according to the peculiarities of the sectors.
Who can be a security ambassador?
The people who can act as ambassadors are those who have identification for the purpose of the organization, disseminating the values of the institution and influencing others. Thus, they can identify problems and propose improvements by participating in decisions.
This group may have as its goal not only to represent a bridge between the organization and people. But also give voice for participants to question and represent the particularities of each sector.
Empower people through a program of information security ambassadors
Ambassador programs can enhance people's participation by promoting more egalitarian and collaborative cultures. Thus, it is possible to involve people from different sectors, positions, profiles and personalities, so that they represent a large part of the culture of the organization.
This type of participation can make people more empowered by integrating teams through collaboration.
Most cyberattacks start with vulnerabilities caused by people. Most of these risks refer to an action that could be avoided, such as clicking an unknown link.
By empowering people and appointing information security ambassadors, you can make them feel more responsible for protecting the organization. Thus, they are able to involve their colleagues more and more.
Plan your ambassador program
Planning each action and objective of this type of program is essential for you to succeed. In addition to producing and disseminating clear and interesting content, you can share specific materials for ambassadors. This will help these people spread more and more knowledge.
Before you begin you need to question the purpose of your program. Define what will be the goals that will be achieved in the short, medium and long term and what will be your audience.
Then define who will be the people who can support you, how the program can be tested, and ways to metrise the goals. That way, you can create a structure and support for the people who will participate in the ambassador program.
Make a guide
You can set clear policies about your program by creating content to demonstrate how it will work, how people can participate, and what communication channels will be. Consolidating everything into a single document can act as a guide for new ambassadors.
Define activities
It is also essential to define which activities will be developed by ambassadors. Remember that they need to have the necessary skills, and feel comfortable in the activities they will perform. Therefore, the ideal is to develop what the pillars will be. They need to be aligned with the needs of the organization.
Always respect the wishes of each participant. Not every ambassador likes to do everything. Therefore, define different activities that can be worked by each. Thus, ambassadors have options and resources to disseminate what they deem necessary.
Promote integration between areas
Ambassador programs can help people broaden the organization's perspective on certain topics. Thus, it can promote more integration between areas, especially when we refer to information security.
In addition, this type of program can increase the participants' sense of belonging, promoting a broader view of the organization to the group of ambassadors.
All people who are part of an organization live a lot of experiences within it. Because of this, they can contribute different perspectives on the processes.
Listening to these people, and having their support, can be very valuable in establishing a culture of digital security.
It is common for organisations to have difficulties integrating different sectors. But it is possible to reverse this situation through a program of ambassadors.
This type of program allows people to know and experience issues from other areas. In this way, colleagues can be influenced to act differently by applying what they have learned.
Thus, people need to participate in the construction of activities and be present in their communications. Including testimonials, actions, photos, and videos can make them feel part of the security strategy.
Empower and engage people
Even choosing the best reps, they will need to be on the same page. For this, it is very important to provide resources and continuous monitoring. In this way, people who act as ambassadors of information security can contribute even more to the program.
These people can't be the last people to know anything. Thus, it is essential to develop an open communication channel, where they can receive relevant information and content that can be shared with others.
By sharing content related to digital security issues, these ambassadors demonstrate the importance that these issues have within their daily lives. This can cause people to visualize the risks that are subjected within the digital world.
Create a content library
For people who are part of this type of program to feel supported, it is important to develop a digital library. In this way, they can access and remember training, share relevant content, and observe what can be developed.
It is also important to provide training, making people prepared and comfortable communicating with other sectors.
Recognize the victories
It is essential that people feel recognized for their efforts. Create communications about the performance of ambassador programs, use internal channels to value the sectors that most recognized threats, reward people who did not fall in any simulation in the year.
These actions are essential for teams to feel that they are part of your organization's security program.
For this reason, it is very important that people know what is being developed. How the program is structured and how people can be part of these actions. This generates engagement and makes everyone feel part of the strategy.
This way, you can develop award programs for teams that do better in training and simulations. Another option is that ambassadors have their own budget for this type of award, presenting the people who have completed the trainings the most. This kind of action makes people feel recognized for their efforts.
Track results
It's not easy to create an ambassador program, but it can bring many benefits. Like people's engagement, that might surprise. When they are recognized and valued for acting more securely, they can help create an even more efficient strategy.
In this way, the ambassador's role goes beyond someone who shares internal communications. It is necessary that this person involves other teams, recognizes deficiencies in the program, brings questions from other sectors. In this way, it is possible to create more inclusive programs that represent more and more voices within the organization.
Establish metrics
To keep your program going, you can keep up with the development and feedback it provides. These are the so-called metrics.
Each program is different, as they can be based on different objectives. However, you can analyze how people are responding better to simulations. Or if more people are completing training.
All of this can be tracked through our platform, which offers real-time reports and metrics so you can view the results of your campaigns and projects.
Focus on people, not just numbers
The number of cyber attacks against organizations has grown exponentially in recent years. As a matter of time, digital security has become one of the most debated issues within government organizations and agencies. And every information security strategy needs to go through people's awareness.
Attacks are becoming increasingly elaborate, causing ordinary users to be tricked into opening the security doors of your organization. There are many methods for people to be more accustomed to information security issues.
Training, simulations, announcements, personal assistants, all of this can make people able to recognize threats and protect organizations.
An ambassador program can collaborate to make all these methods even more effective, generating engagement within different sectors and integrating areas.
That way, structuring an ambassador program can seem like a complicated task. This will require people to be empowered and have sufficient resources to collaborate with the program.
Prioritize information security
Even though it is an emerging issue within organizations, information security is not yet one of the highest priorities. This fact can make it more difficult to approve projects and structure programs, including people's awareness.
For this reason, basing the analysis of this type of program only on numbers can be persuasive to get attention from a board, but not enough.
Thus, what can make it possible to see the project beyond the numbers is to demonstrate how these ideas can integrate different areas, making people feel more valued.
Ambassador programs directly impact people and make them feel empowered. New leadership can emerge and participants can discover even new skills. It's the people who are able to change the numbers.
Count on our help to apply a program of ambassadors within your organization. Conduct training, simulations, and use our content library to create a cybersecurity culture.
Want to learn more? Our sales team can introduce you to the platform and how we can help you create a cybersecurity culture.
