How Tiny Habits Compounded Add Security Resiliency To Your Business

Let me start with a description of what is “Power of Compound” all about…

Suppose you invest your money and make returns on it. The compound takes effect when you reinvest the interest rather than take it as a payout.

This means that interest in the next period is earned not only on the principal sum but also on any interest that was previously accumulated.

Imagine, you invested $1 and received a 10% return per day. The start of the next day, you would then have a $1.10. Now that $0.10 doesn’t look much in the scheme of things.

But the magical element of compounding is the effect of time.

• By the end of 7 days, your total tally would be $1.77
• By the end of 31 days, your total would be $17.45
• By the end of 100 days, your total would be $12,527.83
• By the end of 150 days, your total would be $1,470,652.58

Here is another fun video explanation prepared by Tony Robbins of the power of compound when it comes to a game of golf – Click HERE

Now, I know what you may be asking me … what has this got to do with managing security risk of all things?

Let me explain this in another metaphor – Teeth cavities

We realise how important in having the right mouth hygiene. It is easy to brush our teeth. Yet, we know perfectly well that even if we brush our teeth daily, it doesn’t guarantee that cavities won’t happen.

What we have done here is managed and reduced the risk of severe mouth ailment. The alternative is an expensive and painful visit to the dentist.

What is the secret here?

Discipline! It’s the daily and consistent application of the same action.

So here’s a novel thought: What if the principle of compounding could use the same powerful principle to improve other areas of your life – not only money but also knowledge, health, relationships, cybersecurity and insider risk management?

The power of compounding is hard for us to get our heads around. We tend to understand about find it taxing to act on it.

Human nature conspires against us when it comes to benefit from compounding.

All of us can build our knowledge, but many of us don’t put in the effort.

Reading a book won’t make you smart overnight. But reading one today and over time, will improve your odds of becoming an expert in the future.

Adopting healthy eating habits won’t turn you into a picture of health in the next 24 hours. But eating well over time may ensure your future well-being.

Whether it’s making money, gaining knowledge or staying healthy, harnessing the power of compounding comes down to one thing: adopting the right habits.

The same is true is when it comes to cybersecurity and insider risk management practices.

And this is where I want to introduce you to a Japanese word – Kaizen

Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) is a strategy where employees at all levels of a company work together proactively to achieve regular, incremental improvements. In a sense, it combines the collective talents within a company to create a powerful engine for improvement.

Kaizen is a part action plan and part philosophy.

• As an action plan, Kaizen is about organising events focused on improving specific areas within the company. These events involve teams of employees at all levels.
• As a philosophy, Kaizen is about building a culture where all employees are actively engaged in suggesting and implementing improvements to the company.

 Let me ask you a question. What is your organisation approach to Kaizen? How are you committed to continual and ongoing improvements daily?

If you want to drive cybersecurity resiliency, you need to ask yourself the following questions (non-exhaustive):

• How can I maximise existing security investment to better able to detect and prevent threats?
• How can I make my processes more efficient and effective?
• How can I simplify my corporate policies so that all employees are better able to understand organisation culture?
• How can I increase the level of communications within my organisation so that I reduce misunderstanding and confusion?
• How can I reduce the level of complexity within my systems, tools and infrastructure so that it is easier to manage?
• How can I respond to cyber threats today better than I did yesterday?
• How can I raise greater cyber awareness within the organisation better than I did yesterday?

If you want to drive insider risk management resiliency, you need to ask yourself the following questions (non-exhaustive):

• How do I gain greater visibility and understanding into the human behaviour within my organisation?
• How do I get better visibility and identify internal risk in real-time?
• How can I increase the deterrence of insiders from committing a malicious act?
• How can I close the doors to unauthorised data exfiltration better?
• How can I better respond to red flag scenarios?
• How can I anticipate and manager better negative issues in the work environment?
• How can I increase the level of trust within my organisation?
• What plans and steps that I can introduce that will increase employee engagement?
• What tools, learning and support can in introduce that will reduce unintentional incidents?
• How can I help employees to act in the best interest of the organisation?

In Summary

In today’s world, a certain amount of improvement is necessary just to keep up with the rapid pace of change. New technologies are announced nearly every month. New manufacturing techniques are discovered even more often. New words come into use anytime a trend or fad catches on. And what we learn about ourselves, about our health and our capacity for human thought, continues unabated.

Improving is, therefore, necessary simply to survive. But to thrive, as successful people do, a more dedicated approach to improvement in small increments.

Whenever you set out to improve your skills, change your behaviour, or better your family life or business, beginning in small, manageable steps gives you a greater chance of long-term success.

Doing too much too fast not only overwhelms you (or anyone else involved in the improvement), it can doom the effort to failure and thereby reinforcing the belief that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to succeed.

When you start with small, achievable steps you can easily master, it reinforces your belief that you can simply improve – The Power of Compound!

 How Can We Help you?

Interested in identifying strategies in how your organisation can increase its effectiveness and ability to prevent, detect, deter, disrupt and respond to insider threats? Download our free strategy paper – How To Develop An Insider Risk Mitigation Program In 7 Steps?

Take The Challenge

How resilient do you think is your organisation from insider threat harm? How READY is your business capable of detecting, preventing, deterring and responding to insider threats?

Would you be interested in finding out how you compare to your industry peers? Would you be surprised to know that most organisations that have taken this assessment are somewhat vulnerable?

What tiny steps and habits could you start today that would make a big difference to the resiliency of your organisation?

Contact us by filling out the form of the CommsNet Group website to discuss your requirements: https://commsnet.com.au/contact-us