When I walk into a new client meeting, I can usually tell within the first ten minutes whether a company thinks of cybersecurity as a checklist or as a habit. Some organizations open with a stack of policies and a proud list of compliance badges. Others start by talking about how their teams actually work and where they feel exposed.
Both approaches matter, but they are not the same. Compliance is important. It is often required. It can even be helpful. But compliance alone does not keep you safe. Real security comes from what people do every day, especially when no one is watching. That is what I mean when I talk about building a security culture that lasts.
I have spent most of my career working with mid-sized businesses, and I have seen this lesson play out again and again. The companies that recover quickly from incidents and avoid repeat problems are not always the ones with the thickest policy manuals. They are the ones where people treat security as part of their job, not a separate thing they are forced to do once a year.
Why Compliance is Not Enough
Compliance is a baseline. It sets minimum expectations for protecting data, controlling access, and reporting incidents. Frameworks like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, and others give businesses structure. They tell you what good security should include.
But compliance is often focused on proof, not practice. You can pass an audit and still be vulnerable. I have worked with companies that had perfect compliance records but still got hit by phishing or ransomware. When we dug into it, the issue was not that they lacked policies. The issue was that people did not understand the policies, did not trust them, or quietly worked around them to get their jobs done.
Attackers do not care that you have a policy. They care about what your people actually do.
What Security Culture Really Means
Security culture is how people think and behave when it comes to protecting information. It is the everyday choices they make without being reminded.
It is an employee who double-checks an unexpected invoice email before paying it.
It is a manager who insists on using multi-factor authentication even if it adds a small step.
It is a new hire who feels comfortable asking, “Is this link safe?” instead of clicking quickly.
A lasting security culture does not depend on fear. It depends on understanding, trust, and consistent habits.
Start with Leadership, Always
Culture does not grow from the bottom up alone. It needs leadership support or it stays fragile. When executives treat cybersecurity as an IT problem, employees follow that example. When leaders take it seriously and talk about it like a shared responsibility, employees mirror that too.
One of my first questions in a security engagement is simple: “How do leaders model secure behavior?”
Do they use password managers?
Do they report suspicious emails?
Do they follow the same access rules as everyone else?
Employees notice. Culture forms around what leadership does, not what they say.
Make Security Practical and Human
People do not ignore security because they are careless. Most of the time they ignore it because it feels disconnected from their reality. If a policy is confusing, time-consuming, or written in jargon, it becomes background noise.
So I focus on practicality. I treat security like a product that people need to adopt. That means designing systems and policies that fit the way teams work.
For example, instead of giving employees a long document about phishing, I show them three real phishing emails that are targeting their industry right now. We talk about what makes them believable. We practice what to do next.
Training that feels real builds habits that last.
Turn Policies into Simple Actions
Policies matter, but they need translation. Most employees do not read security policies, and even if they do, they do not remember them in the moment.
So I break policies into clear actions.
Instead of “Follow data handling procedures,” say “Do not email spreadsheets with customer data. Use the secure portal instead.”
Instead of “Report incidents immediately,” say “If you click a suspicious link, call IT right away and do not try to fix it alone.”
Security culture grows when the expectations are simple enough to follow under stress.
Build Feedback Loops
Security cannot be one-way communication. If we want security to stick, we have to listen to the people doing the work.
I always ask teams:
- What security steps slow you down the most?
- Where do you feel unsure?
- What feels like a rule that does not match your workflow?
This feedback is gold. It tells you where people are likely to create workarounds. If you fix those friction points early, you prevent risk later.
One mid-sized company I worked with had a policy that required password changes every 30 days. Employees hated it, so they reused passwords with tiny edits. We replaced that policy with strong passphrases and multi-factor authentication, and behavior improved immediately.
A culture that lasts is flexible enough to learn and adjust.
Celebrate Security Wins
Security culture is not built only through warnings. It is built through pride and ownership.
When an employee reports a phishing email, celebrate it.
When a team completes a training milestone, recognize them.
When leadership makes a secure choice that adds effort, point it out.
Positive reinforcement tells people that security is valued. It turns a “rule” into a shared goal.
Small celebrations also keep security from feeling like endless bad news. People need to know they are making progress.
Practice for the Hard Days
Culture shows up most clearly during incidents. A strong security culture means people know what to do when something goes wrong, and they do not freeze or hide mistakes.
That is why I push for tabletop exercises and incident drills, even in smaller companies. These are not about fear. They are about muscle memory.
If employees practice how to report an incident, how to isolate a device, and how to communicate clearly, they build confidence. Confidence is part of culture too.
Keep Security Visible, Not Overwhelming
Security culture needs reminders, but not noise. If you send ten warning emails a week, people stop reading. If you send one clear, useful message tied to something real, people remember.
I like short monthly awareness moments. A quick phishing example. A reminder about secure file sharing. A simple story about a recent industry breach and what we can learn.
Consistency wins over intensity.
Embrace The Culture
Compliance is the floor. Culture is the house you build on top of it.
If a business wants real protection, it has to move beyond box-checking and into habit-building. That takes leadership example, practical training, simple expectations, feedback, and positive reinforcement. It is not flashy, but it works.
The companies that do this well do not just pass audits. They stay safer year after year because their people are part of the defense.
Lasting security comes from what we practice, not what we promise. And when security becomes part of how a company operates, not just how it reports, that is when it really starts to last.