Since the beginning, individual actions and beliefs have been shaped by the culture. This culture then differs from each person, sparking a cultural difference when they meet and share ideas. But how does this affect cybersecurity awareness in any shape or form?
To understand that, knowing about cultural differences itself is important. In the context of cybersecurity, it is the difference between groups of individuals in how they perceive cybersecurity and how they respond to anything related to it.
By understanding cultural differences, companies can enhance their cybersecurity and ensure each individual remains secure. So what is cyber security awareness and why it is important that companies have to consider cultural impact to improve it?
What is Cybersecurity Awareness?
The meaning of cyber security awareness is just exactly as it seems. It refers to how much the level of awareness that individuals or companies have about cybersecurity, like what they do know about common threats and how they can mitigate them.
The ultimate reason behind the need to raise this awareness is simple. As every security company knows, improving security with just technology alone is not enough. The users and even employees need to know about cybersecurity awareness importance.
In order to raise this awareness, companies can educate end users with some sort of best cybersecurity practice guidelines. Meanwhile, employees can be properly trained and educated about common threats and their proper mitigation.
Why is Cybersecurity Awareness Important?
Considering it has a yearly campaign in October just to raise awareness about staying secure online, it does seem to be important. But for businesses, what makes this particular awareness so important? The reasons are as straightforward as ever:
- To ensure individuals and employees are knowledgeable enough to be prepared for cyber threats. Things like phishing scams, data breaches, and security incidents can be avoided by preparedness and educated actions.
- To increase customer confidence and how they perceive the company. By educating customers about cybersecurity awareness importance, their confidence in the company will be increased, gaining their trust as a result.
How Cultural Differences Affect Cybersecurity: 4 Key Reasons
After knowing about cybersecurity awareness meaning for business, let’s talk about how it can be affected by cultural differences. There are four key reasons why cultural nuance provides a challenge to making people more aware of cybersecurity:
Communication Styles and Information Sharing
The way of communication has always been different in many cultural regions. For example, Americans and Australians value direct communication, whereas Chinese and Japanese indirect communication may see direct negative information as impolite.
Then, there’s another communication style where level of formality matters. Information told with a sense of humor may be received well in specific cultures, but not so much for others that prefer professionalism when talking about cybersecurity.
Communication problems like language barriers and cultural norms can also affect how cybersecurity awareness ideas are being shared. Not only that, cultural norms can influence how individuals share their personal information online, risking themselves.
Decision-Making and Risk Perception
There are more layers when it comes to how cultural difference plays the role of decision-making and risk perception. The first one is about individualism vs. collectivism.
Countries with individualistic cultures, like the Western countries and Australia, prefer taking matters into their own hands. However, collectivistic cultures like Indonesia rely on consensus-building to make a decision.
The challenge with both stances depends on how companies approach a cyber threat. Individualistic actions may not align well with a company, where collectivists tend to wait to make decisions, potentially leading to delayed action.
Regarding risk perception, cultural differences and norms can influence how individuals respond to cybersecurity threats. Some cultures may take it proactively, while some cultures just don’t really take a threat seriously.
Incident Responses and Preparedness
2023 research from Ivanti suggested that there are country-level differences in preparedness when it comes to cybersecurity. For example, about 83% from Germany would feel safe to report their fault to the security team vs. just 61% from Japan.
Moreover, about 55% in India believed they have an impact on a company’s cybersecurity efforts, while it’s only 7% in China. So, what kind of conclusion can one possibly take from this research?
- Cultural differences may have different levels of preparedness against cybersecurity threats. This includes their willingness to take preventive action or engage in cybersecurity awareness tips and discussions.
- Cultural differences affect how individuals react to cybersecurity incidents. This includes what they think about reporting incidents and how they can cooperate with security teams to solve the threat.
- Cultural differences affect individual’s will to learn from their mistakes. Especially accepting responsibility and making changes to ensure future incidents could be avoided.
Regulatory Environment and Legal Obligations
Government and regulatory entities from different cultures can also give yet another wall for companies to aim for a global secure environment. For example, Singapore’s cyber regulation is more integrated and risk-based compared to Indonesia’s UU ITE.
In addition, some countries may also lack regulatory disclosure obligations, leading them to choose not to report cyber incidents. As a company that strives for global services, tailoring communication to each cultural region is necessary.
Example of Cultural Difference in Cybersecurity
It’s pretty easy to find an example of how these cultural differences affect individuals and their cybersecurity. Here are some of the examples:
- Just like culture, social media practices are also culturally different. In some places, individuals may feel no risk sharing their private information (or somebody else’s) on their social media accounts.
- There are cultural differences in how passwords are managed. For instance, choosing the strength of the password, sharing it with their relatives, and reusing the same or slightly modified password.
- Individualism vs. collectivism differences impact online privacy behaviors. Individualistic users tend to be strict with passwords and personal data, whereas collectivistic users tend to share around.
Ready to Make Cybersecurity Awareness Truly Global?
Your global services may have employees coming from different cultures, so your cybersecurity awareness should be as well. Thankfully, Keypaz is here to help you strengthen your security standards while also making them consistent globally.
For instance, you can build culturally adaptive, behavior-driven programs that engage users across geographies. No matter where your employees are from, Keypaz ensures a cybersecurity training that is culturally appropriate.
With Keypaz, you can get insight into how to localize your cybersecurity training without losing global impact. Book a free strategy session with our cybersecurity awareness experts today!