Why are my Organization's Policies and Procedures not Effective?

It is true what they say: actions speak louder than words. This saying applies to your organization’s information security policies and procedures just as well as to anything else in life. What may seem like perfect ready-to-go policies and procedures on paper may not be as effective in practice. If you failed yourlast security audit, now is the time to think about the what and the why.
Here are some reasons why your organization’s policies and procedures are not hitting the mark:

Lack of realization of potential threats

It is likely that many of your employees are completely unaware of the level of security threats your organization faces. They may not be taking your policies seriously. Some may even be seeing them as an unnecessary invasion of privacy that makes them less productive. This leads to non-compliance. Non-compliance negates the very core of the information security policies and procedures.It is essential that your employees understand the gravity of danger that non-compliance poses to the data housed at your organization.

Non-alignment with business objectives

Even if your employees realize the harms of a security breach, they still may not be motivated enough. For most of your employees, drafting, reading,or implementing security policies may not be jobs that align with their expectations and goals. For that matter, you yourself may think that a security policy does not go along with the overall objectives of your company. It is just another hassle that must be dealt with daily. For policies and procedures to be effective, your organization’s goals must go hand in hand with the importance of information security.

Outdated software

Your organization’s security policies are only going to be as effective as the software that safeguards them. Using outdated intrusion detection systems or anti-virus software beats the purpose of having a security policy. If your security software is not renewed periodically, your policies will remain ineffective.

Lack of accountability

Have you put anyone in charge of enforcing your policies? In a huge organization, one person alone cannot monitor the effectiveness of your information security policies and procedures. You must form a team of IT experts who can periodically review your organization’s policies and employees’ compliance with those policies. Accountability must be written out in the procedures that are circulated to your employees. When people are held accountable, effectiveness increases automatically.

Lack of training

The policies and procedures outlined for the security of your organization will be ineffective if your employees are not trained on their use.Lack of training is another factor that promotes non-compliance. It gives people an excuse to overlook policies and protocols. Untrained personnel cannot provide feedback on the effectiveness of defined protocols either. Are your employees completely trained to comply with your policies and procedures?

Conclusion

In the fast-paced world of electronic data, the right time to mull over the effectiveness of your organization’s policies was yesterday. Evaluate the reasons we have listed here and make your policies and procedures more effective.

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