Question

Discussion Questions: Employees are often one of the greatest challenges for enhancing information security in government. What can public organizations do to increase employee awareness of information security?

Answer 1

It is true that the employees provide the largest variability and risk factor in various information security measures. Irrespective of the measures taken, if the employees do not cooperate or makes mistake then the whole endeavor of information security is defeated. This needs to be tackled by every organization.

The key to defeating this is identifying the underlying reason why employees often form the Achilles’ heel for information security measures. This is sometimes due to lack of understanding the gravity of the situation, sometimes it is due to mistake, sometimes it is due to lack of caring, and more.

In each of these cases, there are situations of negligence from the part of the employees. As a public organization such situations should be avoided. Hence the only way to achieve this is through several stages.

Firstly the organization needs to hire the right people. The employees’ attitude towards security, citizenship behavior and ethical reasoning should be strong. Next, the organization should focus on training employees and their sensitivities towards information security. Finally, these trainings and rehearsals should be repeated on a regular basis.