In today’s corporations, information security professionals have a lot on their plate. In the face of constantly evolving cyber threats, they must comply with numerous laws and regulations, protect their company’s assets, and mitigate risks to the furthest extent possible.

Security professionals can often be ignorant of the impact that implementing security policies in a vacuum can have on the end users’ core business activities. These end users are, in turn, often unaware of the risk they are exposing the organization to. They may even feel justified in finding workarounds because they believe that the organization values productivity over security. The end result is a conflict between the security team and the rest of the business, and increased, rather than reduced, risk.

This can be addressed by factoring in an individual’s perspective, knowledge, and awareness, and a modern, flexible, and adaptable information security approach. The aim of the security practice should be to correct employee misconceptions by understanding their motivations and working with the users rather than against them - after all, people are a company’s best assets.

This book draws on the experience of industry experts and related academic research to:

• Gain insight into information security issues related to human behavior, from both end users’ and security professionals’ perspectives
• Provide a set of recommendations to support the security professional’s decision-making process, and to improve the culture and find the balance between security and productivity
• Give advice on aligning a security program with wider organizational objectives
• Manage and communicate these changes within an organization

Based on insights gained from academic research, as well as interviews with UK-based security professionals from various sectors, The Psychology of Information Security describes how resolving conflicts between security compliance and human behavior explains the importance of careful risk management and how to align a security program with wider business objectives, providing methods and techniques to engage stakeholders and encourage buy-in.

The Psychology of Information Security redresses the balance by considering information security from both viewpoints in order to gain insight into security issues relating to human behavior, helping security professionals understand how a security culture that puts risk into context promotes compliance.