Zachary Eikenberry CEO and Co-Founder of Hook Security
Cybersecurity is a growing concern for entrepreneurs and business owners because many vital pieces of information, company tools, and sets of customer data are stored in the cloud. Consumers are even more concerned now about the security of their data, and one slip can cost a company its reputation.
The founders of Hook Security recognized that it is daunting for entrepreneurs to understand how to train their employees to maintain the best data security practices. CEO Zachary Eikenberry and chairman Adam Anderson decided to take an educational and empowering approach to data security issues. They determined that digital security issues come down to company culture, and a company is only successful if its employees are trustworthy.
Cybersecurity is really “psychological security”
Anderson and Eikenberry coined the term “psychological security,” which essentially means that any cybersecurity or cybercrime issues come down to behavioral problems or cultural problems within a company. The duo found that, in most workplaces, cybersecurity education for employees is driven by fear and shame. Employees are told not to make mistakes, or that mistakes will be extremely costly, but they are not given the tools they need to understand how to avoid mistakes.
Instead of capitalizing on fear as a motivator for security, Hook Security recommends training the whole person while keeping the whole office culture in mind. They teach employers that it’s essential for employees to feel safe psychologically in their workplaces before they can tackle threats outside their workplaces. Anderson and Eikenberry believe that, quite often, employees feel overworked, not appreciated, and some may even try to commit cybercrimes of their own as revenge for how they were treated.
In response, the team uses education and empowerment to help employees feel that they have the resources and support they need to grow and to keep the company safe as a whole.
A holistic approach to company success
Entrepreneurs can learn from Hook Security’s holistic approach to tackling a common business issue. Instead of creating quick fixes that cause greater stress or uncertainty for employees, they went right to the root cause of the problem: lack of unity in companies.
Hook Security’s primary concern for its clients is that team members communicate effectively and have clear expectations around the shared goals of the company members. Their business model tackles a common problem in entrepreneurship—cybersecurity—but they don’t forget to take care of the people who are affected by the issue.
In the same way, any entrepreneur facing a problem in their business should look to remedy that issue holistically. First, they should implement strategies and tools that help employees succeed—whether that’s a cybersecurity system, or a set of processes to ensure safety. Second, they should take into account the personal, communication, or relational issues that may be contributing to the workplace problem. In the cybersecurity world, Hook Security recognized that risks are ever-changing, and strategy must continuously be reevaluated. In the same way, entrepreneurs should understand that the risks threatening company success and safety are ever-evolving and leadership must take a holistic, consistent approach.
