Security News > 2021 > August > Cybersecurity professionals: Positive reinforcement works wonders with users
With all the negativity in the world, it feels like a good time to remind everyone that positive reinforcement is an effective tool for improving employee behavior when it comes to cybersecurity.
To keep everyone on the same page, let's use the definition championed in Courtney E. Ackerman's PositivePsychology.com article Positive Reinforcement in Psychology: "A desirable or pleasant stimulus after a behavior. The desirable stimulus reinforces the behavior, making it more likely that the behavior will reoccur."
Positive reinforcement: A desirable stimulus is introduced to encourage a specific behavior.
Positive punishment: An undesirable stimulus is presented to discourage an existing behavior.
Sai Venkataraman, CEO of SecurityAdvisor, in his Help Net Security article, The power of positive reinforcement in combating cybercriminals, said he wants management to rethink its approach and use positive reinforcement instead. "It's important to recognize that cognitive bias is part of the human brain's makeup and functionality," Venkataraman said in his introduction.
"Through repetition and contextual learning, behaviors can change over time, with positive reinforcement serving as the overarching umbrella to an organization's broader security-awareness strategy," he said.