What People Do When Security Gets in the Way
If you work in security long enough, you start to notice a pattern.
Breaches aren’t usually caused by missing tools. Policies aren’t ignored because people never read them. Awareness isn’t lacking because training didn’t exist.
Most security failures happen in ordinary moments:
- A rushed click during a busy morning
- A shortcut taken to meet a deadline
- A rule bent because “it worked last time”
That’s when security culture shows up. Or doesn’t.
Security Culture Isn’t a Slogan
Security culture is often described in big, abstract terms. Posters on walls. Slides in decks. Statements like “Security is everyone’s responsibility.”
But in reality, security culture is much simpler.
It’s what happens when:
- Someone receives a weird email
- A process feels painful or slow
- Security conflicts with productivity
- Nobody from security is around to help
Do people stop and think? Do they speak up? Or do they just get the job done and hope nothing breaks?
That instinctive reaction, that’s security culture.
The Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Most people know what they should do.
They know not to reuse passwords. They know phishing exists. They know reporting incidents is important.
Yet incidents still happen.
Not because people are careless, but because real work is messy. Deadlines exist. Pressure exists. Context switches happen. Security decisions are often made under stress, not in classrooms.
Security culture lives in that gap between knowing and doing.
If the culture supports safe choices, people make them. If it doesn’t, even good people make risky ones.
How Security Is Experienced Matters
Here’s an uncomfortable truth:
People don’t experience our intentions. They experience friction.
They experience:
- MFA prompts during critical calls
- Password resets before meetings
- Tools that feel slow or complex
- Security messages that sound like warnings, not help
If security feels like something that blocks work, it becomes something to work around.
If security feels like part of how the organization succeeds, it becomes something people protect.
Security culture is shaped less by what we say and more by how security feels to deal with.
What I’ve Learned About Human Behavior
Over time, you start realizing a few things:
- People rarely want to do the wrong thing
- Most mistakes are unintentional
- Fear suppresses reporting
- Silence is often a warning sign
- Norms are stronger than policies
If people whisper about security, something’s wrong. If incidents are reported late, something’s wrong. If only IT “cares” about security, something’s wrong.
Culture determines whether people feel safe enough to be honest and supported enough to do the right thing.
Leadership Sets the Tone (Every Day)
Security culture doesn’t start in the SOC. It starts with leadership behavior.
People notice:
- Who gets exceptions
- Who bypasses controls
- Who gets blamed when something breaks
- Who is exempt from the rules
If leaders treat security seriously, others follow. If leaders ignore it, others stop caring…… quietly.
One of the strongest indicators of a healthy security culture is this: Do people report mistakes early, without fear?
That single signal tells you more than a hundred dashboards.
Security Culture Is About Trust
Strong security culture is built on trust:
- Trust that reporting won’t lead to punishment
- Trust that security understands the business
- Trust that controls exist for a reason
- Trust that people are allowed to be human
When trust is present, people collaborate. When trust is missing, people hide problems.
And hidden problems always grow.
This Isn’t About Perfection
Let’s be realistic.
People will click things. Passwords will be mistyped. Mistakes will happen.
Security culture isn’t about preventing every error. It’s about how the organization reacts when errors happen.
- Are lessons learned?
- Are systems improved?
- Are people supported instead of blamed?
A strong security culture turns mistakes into resilience. A weak one turns mistakes into breaches.
Why This Matters More Than Ever
Technology keeps evolving. Threats keep adapting. Automation keeps increasing.
But the human element remains constant.
Firewalls don’t decide under pressure. SIEMs don’t second‑guess themselves. People do.
If we want security to actually work, we have to stop treating culture as “soft” and start recognizing it as core security infrastructure.
Final Thought
Security doesn’t fail at the firewall.
It fails in moments where:
- Speaking up feels risky
- Following the rules feels impossible
- Security feels disconnected from reality
Security culture is what fills those gaps.
It’s not built with mandates. It’s built with empathy, consistency, and trust.
And when it’s done right, security stops being something people comply with — and starts being something they believe in.