While some see the practice as noble, others may associate it with disgruntled employees seeking revenge on their employers.
Despite the potential controversy, whistleblowers are an essential part of cybersecurity.
When you take an objective, security-minded stance, you'll see that true whistleblowers do more good than harm.
Whistleblowers Protect Customers The most important role of whistleblowers in cybersecurity is that of a customer advocate.
Not every privacy violation or security failure is as public as a data breach, either.
Unsafe business practices or unpatched vulnerabilities may leave people's data open to attack without them ever knowing about it.
If these security missteps don't publicly cross any legal lines, it takes a whistleblower to expose the practice and hold the firm accountable.
Whistleblowers ensure victims of unsafe cybersecurity practices can get the justice they deserve.
The resulting punishments also push the enterprise at fault to change its methods, improving its security posture.
Whistleblowers Raise Overall Security Standards Whistleblowers also improve the security practices of organizations that were never in the wrong.
Companies have paid upwards of $1 billion in fines for the kinds of noncompliance whistleblowers may report them for.
As that trend continues, organizations realize they have more to lose in hiding security flaws than they gain by forgoing necessary protections.
Whistleblowers' existence pushes leaders to take security best practices seriously.
Whistleblowers Promote Security Awareness Whistleblowers are also good for individual security.
Whistleblower cases address this by turning the conversation toward risky behavior.
It's also worth noting how many whistleblower cases arise when leadership doesn't listen to repeated advice or warnings from IT or security personnel.
They may inspire other brands to embrace a culture of cybersecurity.
The resulting increased communication and training prevents security issues on an employee level.
The Security World Should Encourage and Protect Whistleblowers Organizations with a strong, healthy cybersecurity culture don't need to worry about whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers improve the security of the firm they call out, others watching the case, and even individual users.
This Cyber News was published on feeds.dzone.com. Publication date: Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:43:04 +0000