Security Culture Survey (SCS)

You can assign a Security Culture Survey to your users to assess your organization's current security culture. Security culture is defined as the ideas, customs, and social behaviors that impact the security of your organization. 

The results of your survey will provide you with a breakdown of the seven dimensions that make up your security culture, as well as an overall security culture score for your organization. Use this information to establish a baseline for your security culture, to make changes as necessary, and to track the way your culture evolves over time. It is important to have a strong security culture in order to improve your organization’s risk management.

The survey questions were developed using a scientific approach. The seven dimensions we use in this survey have been developed and researched. For more information on how these questions were created and why we are using these particular dimensions, please see our Security Culture Survey technical document.

Below, you'll learn about the Security Culture Survey. For specific information about how to use assessments or what the Security Awareness Proficiency Assessment is, please see these articles on the Knowledge Base:

• How to Use Assessments
• What is the Security Awareness Proficiency Assessment (SAPA)?

Use the jump links below to navigate to a specific section of the article.

Jump to:
Best Practices
Learner Experience
Security Culture Survey Results

Best Practices

We recommend that you have your users take this security culture survey after their first 90 days. This way, you can ensure they have adjusted to your organization's culture.  After your initial test, you should continue to survey your users yearly to see how your organization's security culture changes over time. 

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Learner Experience

After they click Start, users have the option to click Start Survey or Come Back Later. Your users may opt to come back later or if they start the survey, they are free to close the survey and pick up where they left off. If they click Start Survey, the user will be asked 28 questions.

After they have completed the survey, they will be directed to a thank you page.

At the end of the survey, your users will also have the opportunity to submit feedback. Feedback is anonymous and can be downloaded from the Results tab of the campaign.

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Security Culture Survey Results

On the Results tab, you will see your organization’s culture score. To navigate to your results, follow these instructions from the How to Use Assessments article. Beneath the score, you will see the Security Culture Index. This index shows you what the score means. There is also a radar graph that breaks down the survey results by dimension.  Beneath the Results by Dimensions radar graph, you have the option to Download Feedback. This option exports a CSV of any feedback your users provided regarding the survey. 

The seven dimensions are:

• Attitudes
• Behaviors
• Cognition
• Communication
• Compliance
• Norms
• Responsibilities

Below the index and the radar graph, these dimensions are explained and presented in the order of highest score to least. Read through these descriptions for tips on how to improve the score in certain areas. For more information on these dimensions and what you can do to change your score in each area, please see this PDF about the 7 Dimensions of Security Culture.  If you would like additional information about the security culture index, please see this PDF.

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