Cybersecurity culture is the shared habits, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how everyone in a company protects data, not just the security team.
It shows up in small moments: an employee who reports a strange email instead of deleting it, a manager who asks about access before approving a new tool, a founder who uses MFA without being reminded. Some people call it security culture or information security culture. They mean the same thing.
Reviewed by Riya Ann Varghese, GRC Engineer, ISO 27001 lead auditor certified. Last updated October 19, 2026.
How We Wrote This Guide
We based this guide on primary sources: the AICPA Trust Services Criteria used in SOC 2, the UK NCSC cyber security culture principles, and the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report. The evidence examples come from what auditors ask for during the SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits we support. A GRC engineer reviewed every section.
What Is Cybersecurity Culture?
Cybersecurity culture is how people in your company actually behave around security when nobody is checking.
Policies say what people should do. Culture is what they really do. A company with a strong culture has staff who spot risks, speak up early, and follow security rules because they understand why the rules exist.
Security Culture vs Security Awareness
Security awareness is what people know, while security culture is what people do with that knowledge every day.
| Security awareness | Security culture |
|---|---|
| Knowing what a phishing email looks like | Reporting the phishing email within minutes |
| Finishing the yearly training course | Asking the security team before using a new AI tool |
| Knowing the password policy | Using a password manager without being told |
| Measured by course completion | Measured by behavior, reporting rates, and repeat mistakes |
Training builds awareness. Culture needs training plus leadership, simple rules, and a safe way to report mistakes.
Examples of a Strong vs Weak Cybersecurity Culture
| Situation | Weak culture | Strong culture |
|---|---|---|
| Someone clicks a phishing link | They hide it, afraid of blame | They report it right away and get thanked |
| A new hire starts | Gets system access before any security briefing | Signs policies and finishes training before access |
| A deadline is tight | Shared passwords and skipped reviews | The secure way is also the easy way |
| Leaders and security | Executives ask for exceptions | Executives follow the same rules in public |
| An employee leaves | Accounts stay open for weeks | Access is removed the same day |
Why Cybersecurity Culture Matters
Cybersecurity culture matters because most breaches still involve a person making a mistake or being tricked.
The Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found that the human element was involved in about 60% of breaches, through errors, stolen credentials, or social engineering. Tools catch a lot, but they cannot stop an employee from approving a fake invoice or sharing a password on a call.
Culture also matters for sales. Larger customers send security questionnaires that ask about training, policies, and incident reporting. Your SOC 2 or ISO 27001 auditor checks the same things, so a weak culture shows up as audit findings.
Who Is Responsible for Developing a Cybersecurity Culture?
Leadership is responsible for developing a cybersecurity culture, but every employee shares responsibility for keeping it alive.
Security teams cannot build culture alone. The table shows who owns what.
| Role | What they own |
|---|---|
| CEO and leadership team | Set the tone, fund the program, follow the rules in public, and name an owner |
| Security or compliance lead | Write clear policies, run training, track evidence, and measure progress |
| Managers | Talk about security in team meetings, approve access carefully, and support people who report mistakes |
| HR | Security steps in onboarding and offboarding, background checks, and the disciplinary process |
| Every employee | Follow policies, finish training, and report anything suspicious |
The NCSC makes the same point in its fifth principle: leaders take responsibility for the impact they have on security culture.
How Auditors Check Your Security Culture
Auditors check security culture by testing the controls behind it: policies, training, accountability, and incident reporting.
No audit gives you a "culture score". But SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA all require the habits a good culture creates, and they all ask for proof.
Does SOC 2 Require Security Awareness Training?
Yes, SOC 2 expects security awareness training, and auditors usually test it under criteria CC1.4 and CC2.2.
The AICPA's trust services criteria tie culture to four criteria:
- CC1.1: leaders set the tone at the top and define standards of conduct, such as a code of conduct.
- CC1.4: the company develops competent people, including training to keep skills current.
- CC1.5: people are held accountable, with a defined process for disciplinary action.
- CC2.2: the company communicates security responsibilities, explains how to report incidents, and runs a security awareness training program.
What ISO 27001 and HIPAA Require
ISO 27001 requires awareness in clause 7.3 and training in Annex A control 6.3, while HIPAA requires a security awareness and training program.
Under ISO 27001, clause 5.1 also makes top management responsible for the security program, and Annex A controls 6.4 and 6.8 cover the disciplinary process and how staff report security events. HIPAA sets its training rule in 45 CFR 164.308(a)(5).
Evidence Auditors Ask For
| Culture habit | SOC 2 | ISO 27001 | Evidence auditors ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leaders set the tone | CC1.1 | Clause 5.1 | Signed code of conduct, board or leadership meeting notes on security |
| Everyone is trained | CC1.4, CC2.2 | Clause 7.3, A.6.3 | Training completion records with dates, for every employee and contractor |
| Policies are read | CC2.2 | A.5.1 | Policy acknowledgements signed at hire and after updates |
| Incidents get reported | CC2.2 | A.6.8 | A reporting channel, plus tickets showing reports were handled |
| Rules have consequences | CC1.5 | A.6.4 | A written disciplinary policy and records of its use |
For a SOC 2 Type 2 report, the auditor samples new hires from the whole audit period. One person who got access before finishing training can become an exception in your report. Our guide to SOC 2 exceptions explains what happens next.
How to Build a Cybersecurity Culture in 7 Steps
To build a cybersecurity culture, give it an owner, make secure behavior easy, train people often, and measure what changes.
1. Name an Owner
Pick one person who is accountable for security culture, often the security or compliance lead, with an executive sponsor. Without an owner, culture work becomes a yearly email that nobody reads.
2. Write Short, Clear Policies
Write policies people can read in five minutes. Explain why each rule exists, not just what it is. Ask every employee to acknowledge them at hire and after each update.
3. Start on Day One
Put security into onboarding before system access: policy sign-off, a short training module, MFA setup, and who to call when something looks wrong. Offboarding matters just as much. Remove access the same day someone leaves.
4. Train by Role, and Test with Phishing Simulations
Give everyone a short yearly course, then add role-based training: secure coding for engineers, payment fraud for finance, data handling for support. Run phishing simulations through the year and follow a failed test with coaching, not punishment. Our guide to compliance training covers how to make training stick.
5. Make Reporting Easy and Blame-Free
Give people one simple way to report, such as a report button or a dedicated channel. Thank people who report, even when it is a false alarm. If people fear blame, they hide mistakes, and hidden mistakes become breaches.
6. Have Leaders Set the Example
Leaders should take the same training, use MFA, and never ask for exceptions. A short security story at an all-hands meeting does more than a long policy.
7. Recruit Security Champions
Ask one volunteer in each team to be the go-to person for security questions. Champions spread good habits faster than a central team can, and they tell you where rules get in the way of real work.
How UprootSecurity Helps You Build a Security Culture You Can Prove
UprootSecurity tracks the people side of compliance, so your culture work turns into audit evidence automatically.
- Policy management: ready-made policies, employee acknowledgements, and version history.
- Security training and personnel management: training status and onboarding and offboarding checks for every employee.
- Continuous monitoring: MFA, access, and offboarding checks across 140+ integrations, so gaps show up before your auditor finds them.
→ See how it works: book a demo
How to Measure Cybersecurity Culture
You measure cybersecurity culture by tracking behavior, such as reporting rates and repeat mistakes, not just training completion.
| Metric | What it tells you | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Phishing report rate | Whether people speak up | Rising every quarter |
| Phishing click rate | Whether training works | Falling, with fewer repeat clickers |
| Time to report an incident | Whether reporting feels safe | Minutes or hours, not days |
| Training completion on time | Whether the basics are covered | Every employee and contractor, before access |
| Same-day offboarding | Whether process is followed | Every leaver, every time |
| MFA coverage | Whether secure habits are the default | All users on all critical systems |
Security Culture Survey Questions
A security culture survey asks employees how they feel about security, not just what they know. Run it once or twice a year and keep it anonymous. Ask people to rate these statements from 1 to 5:
- I know how to report a suspicious email or security incident.
- I would report my own mistake without fear of punishment.
- Our security rules make sense for my job.
- Following security rules does not slow down my work too much.
- My manager talks about security.
- Leaders follow the same security rules as everyone else.
- I know who to ask when I have a security question.
- Security is part of my job, not just IT's job.
Low scores on questions 2 and 6 usually point to the biggest problems.
Security Culture Maturity Model
A security culture maturity model shows how far your company has moved from "security is IT's job" to "security is how we work".
| Level | What it looks like | Typical next step |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Unaware | No training, no policies, security is IT's problem | Write core policies and name an owner |
| 2. Compliance-driven | Yearly training to pass an audit or close a deal | Add phishing simulations and easy reporting |
| 3. Aware | People know the rules and mostly follow them | Add role-based training and champions |
| 4. Engaged | Staff report issues early and suggest fixes | Measure behavior and share results |
| 5. Embedded | Security is part of every decision and product plan | Keep reviewing and adapting to new threats |
Most companies preparing for their first SOC 2 sit at level 2. That is a normal starting point.
The NCSC Cybersecurity Culture Framework
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre published six cyber security culture principles in June 2025. In short:
- Frame security as something that helps the business reach its goals.
- Build the safety and trust that lets people be open about security.
- Embrace change to manage new threats.
- Make secure behavior the social norm.
- Leaders take responsibility for their effect on security culture.
- Keep security rules up to date, easy to find, and easy to understand.
Common Mistakes When Building a Security Culture
- Training once a year and stopping there. People forget. Short, regular refreshers work better.
- Punishing people who click. It teaches them to hide mistakes. Coach first.
- Rules that block real work. People find workarounds. Ask teams where rules get in the way.
- Leaders who skip the rules. Everyone notices, and the rules stop meaning anything.
- No evidence. If training and sign-offs are not recorded, your auditor treats them as not done.
How UprootSecurity Approaches Compliance
A strong security culture is the habit. Proving it to auditors and customers, every month of the audit period, is the work that follows.
| What you need | How UprootSecurity handles it |
|---|---|
| Clear policies people sign | Ready-made policies with tracked employee acknowledgements |
| Training for every employee | Security training and personnel management in one place |
| Proof that habits hold | Continuous monitoring of MFA, access, and offboarding across 140+ integrations |
| Guidance for your team | A dedicated compliance expert through readiness and the audit |
| Proof for customers | A trust center and security questionnaire automation |
| A clear price | A custom quote based on your scope, with a yearly penetration test in every plan |
UprootSecurity is a compliance platform for startups and scaleups that need SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, or other frameworks. See our SOC 2 framework page and plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cybersecurity culture is the shared habits, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how everyone in a company protects data. It covers how people handle passwords, suspicious emails, access requests, and mistakes when nobody is checking. A strong culture means staff follow security rules because they understand them, and they report problems early instead of hiding them.
Security culture in an organization is how employees think about and act on security in their daily work. It is shaped by leaders, policies, training, and whether people feel safe reporting mistakes. Security culture, cybersecurity culture, and information security culture usually mean the same thing in a business setting, although security culture can also include physical security.
Leadership is responsible for developing a cybersecurity culture, usually through a named owner such as the security or compliance lead. Executives set the tone and fund the work, managers reinforce it in their teams, HR builds it into onboarding and offboarding, and every employee is responsible for following policies and reporting anything suspicious.
Security awareness is what employees know about threats and rules, while security culture is how they actually behave. Awareness comes from training, such as learning to spot phishing. Culture shows in actions, such as reporting a phishing email right away. You need awareness first, but culture also depends on leadership, simple rules, and blame-free reporting.
Yes, security awareness training is expected for SOC 2. The AICPA's criterion CC2.2 includes communicating security knowledge through a security awareness training program, and CC1.4 covers training to keep skills current. Auditors usually ask for dated training records for every employee and contractor, and they check that new hires finished training on time.
Yes, ISO 27001 requires security awareness. Clause 7.3 says everyone working for the organization must know the security policy, their role in it, and what happens if they do not follow it. Annex A control 6.3 adds awareness, education, and training suited to each job. Auditors check training records and ask staff questions.
Employees should get security awareness training when they join and at least once a year after that. Most auditors expect yearly training at a minimum. Many companies add short monthly or quarterly refreshers and regular phishing simulations, because people forget training over time and new threats appear every year.
You measure security culture by tracking behavior and asking employees directly. Useful metrics include phishing report rates, phishing click rates, time to report incidents, training completion, and same-day offboarding. An anonymous security culture survey once or twice a year shows whether people feel safe reporting mistakes and whether leaders follow the rules.
Examples of a good cybersecurity culture include employees reporting phishing emails within minutes, new hires finishing security training before getting access, managers discussing security in team meetings, and leaders using MFA like everyone else. Another sign is that people who report their own mistakes are thanked, not punished, so problems surface early.
Building a security culture usually takes one to three years of steady work, though early results can show within months. Quick wins include clear policies, onboarding training, and an easy reporting channel. Lasting change, such as people reporting their own mistakes, takes longer because it depends on trust built through consistent leadership.
