"Behavior Model – Helps Explain Why We Can Be So Bad at Awareness"

Recently I attended the Human Behavior Design course by Dr. BJ Fogg. One of my key take aways from the course is his Behavior Model and how it applies to security awareness training. By understanding this simple model (I highly recommend you take five minutes to check it out), you begin to understand why so many of our assumptions about awareness can fail. According to the model the key variables to changing behavior are Motivation and Ability, the greater you increase either variable the more likely you change a behavior. The problem is most security professionals are far more motivated to stay secure then people. Security is our job, it is our passion. That does not mean it is everyone else’s. Combine this with how difficult security can be for others, you begin to understand why we may think changing a behavior would be so simple, yet it is so difficult for …

Reposted from SANS. View original.