How to Foster Trust Between Staff and Security Teams

The greatest cybersecurity barrier isn't technical. It's relational. 🧙🏼♂️ It's always about people. After 20+ years in cybersecurity, I've watched brilliant security professionals repeatedly fail for one reason: they can't cross the relationship gap with business leaders. The pattern is predictable. Security teams master the technical domain but remain isolated from the business teams they protect. When they finally get their meeting with executives, they speak a language no one understands. wake up call: Your technical expertise means nothing if you can't build relationships that translate security into business impact. Here's what's happening: 1. Trust deficit by design → Security is seen as the "Department of No" → Leaders only see security when something breaks → Relationship-building isn't prioritized as a security skill 2. Language barriers  → Technical teams speak in vulnerabilities and threats → Business leaders hear only cost and constraints → No common vocabulary for shared goals 3. Misaligned objectives → Security pursues perfect protection → Business pursues growth and opportunity → Few can articulate how these goals align This broken relationship model isn't just frustrating.  💥It's dangerous. When business and security don't trust each other, both suffer. Here's the fix: 1. Build relationships before incidents → Regular business check-ins with no security agenda → Learn what keeps business leaders up at night → Understand their success metrics 2. Translate across domains → For Sales: Show how security enables closed deals → For Operations: Demonstrate resilience, not just protection → For Finance: Frame security in terms of risk economics 3. Practice business-centric security → Start with business objectives, then apply security → Create roadmaps that align with business milestones → Measure success in business terms, not security metrics Security professionals who master relationship-building become trusted advisors. Those who don't remain perpetual roadblocks. What relationship challenge do you face? 🔄 Repost to help security pros become business partners 📲 Follow Wil Klusovsky for wisdom on cybersecurity & tech business

Until late last year, I used to informally coach executives, mid-career and new entrants in tech on career advancement and impact. During this time of economic anxiety, these sessions are like an XRay/EKG/MRI into America’s professional psyche. A short while ago, an executive told me that the most frustrating part of her job was dealing with cyber-security and privacy teams. Considering my alleged expertise in these domains, she asked me why folks working in those teams tend to be holier-than-thou sanctimonious empathy-lacking jerks. Her language was more colorful, but I digress.. I had to ask what she meant. She said that while well-intentioned, too many privacy/security experts consider “the business” to be the enemy. They talk down to the product and engineering teams, implying that they don’t care about the customer. They accuse these teams of putting the business at risk by violating customer trust. The reality is that even if some business leaders are myopic when it comes to security and privacy, you still will not advance your cause by making enemies out of them. If you work in security and privacy, you need to explain the risks, understand the tradeoffs and recommend solutions. Rather than treating privacy as a holy cause, think of it as a feature that has many possible permutations and outcomes. You need to offer solutions and ideas rather than lectures and solutions. That way, you can first build trust with your teammates, and then collectively build trust with your customers. There will still be strong disagreements, but those need to occur with trust as a foundation and collaboration as a scaffolding. As much as I like an ethics-driven approach to privacy and security, I like an outcome-driven approach just as much. Remember: “Principles without pragmatism” makes you impactless and “Pragmatism without principles” makes you directionless.

Cyber/information security is fundamentally not about technology. It's about people. As one climbs the career ladder towards security leadership, interpersonal communication and relationship-building skills become increasingly indispensable. For me, despite its complexity, the technical security stuff has always been relatively easy to learn when compared to the unspoken subtleties of "people skills". As I've progressed in my security career, the skills I've found to be crucial to security success are: 1) Transparency - being open and communicating frequently with your staff, your peers, your leadership, and the wider organization. It's easy to overlook when the technical workload is high, but it's amazing when everyone is on the same page and aligned towards the larger goal of improving the organization's security. Take the time to communicate, even if it's easier sometimes to bury yourself in technical work. 2) Discretion - conversely, the ability to keep things confidential when needed is very important. This means being the person who people can trust with information they'd rather not spread around. Security teams deal with a lot of sensitive information. Without implicit trust from their colleagues they tend to get cut out of critical information flows, and this hampers their ability to succeed. 3) Kindness and respect - everyone has a lot going on all the time, especially in technology and security. Don't be afraid to step up and give support where needed, even if it means sacrificing some of your time. It's also important to understand that all of us face challenges both inside and outside of work which may not be readily apparent, and approaching each other with kindness and respect is priceless. There are times when kindness and respect also require humility and being able to apologize. In person, and not over text message, email, etc. 4) Flexibility - be willing to compromise. Security teams which are the proverbial "Department of NO" don't accomplish much. Sometimes you need to give a little bit of ground on a particular security issue to maintain a relationship which will ultimately improve security in the organization in the long run. Never forget, security colleagues, that without good relationships with people throughout your organizational chart, all the fancy security technology and processes in the world will not accomplish much. Security success depends on everyone being aware and aligned towards the security mission, and feeling like they are on the same team. Keep learning, colleagues. I am, every day.