Organizational Cybersecurity Hinges on End-User Satisfaction

The critical role end-user experience plays in organizational security

By Amitabh Sinha, CEO and Co-Founder of Workspot

In an era of sophisticated cyber-attacks, security leaders are feeling the pressure to fortify their infrastructure – deploying a variety of defenses including zero-day patches, security tools with frequent application updates, and more. However, as companies progressively implement layered security protocols to safeguard their systems, users have increasingly encountered friction in their day-to-day workflows. In fact, nearly 75% of CISOs say that employees within their business are frustrated with current security policies that are affecting their productivity.

This growing user dissatisfaction can be even more costly to the security of an organization as workers will be increasingly reluctant to tolerate disruptive software updates, patches, and security protocols that impact workflow efficiency. It can also lead to greater personnel issues, affecting the critical business component of employee satisfaction and hindering enterprise productivity.

So, how can security leaders find a balance between enhancing organization security and end-user satisfaction?

Let’s dive into how security leaders can ensure both the safety of their infrastructures and the satisfaction of their end-users through a modern cloud-native approach, including the implementation of modern VDI tools to help measure end-user experience and understand the impact of existing and planned security tools.

Security vs. Satisfaction: Breaking Down the Dilemma 

Many essential, yet cumbersome, cybersecurity protocols can alienate an enterprise’s most critical asset: its employees. This clash between IT security’s push to tighten defenses and employees’ desire for a smooth digital experience creates a CISO vs. employee dilemma. This adds even more pressure on business leaders to optimize security processes. The reality is that the user friction caused by excessive security measures can backfire, potentially leading to costly security vulnerabilities and talent drain.

As an example, employees will be much more reluctant to tolerate software updates or security measures – like using multi-factor authentication (MFA) or password managers – as they add time and effort to their day-to-day tasks. In this scenario, they may work around updates or delay necessary fixes so as to not disrupt workflow. What is even more concerning, users may also use their personal accounts to do work to avoid burdensome security measures. In the most extreme cases, some pockets of “shadow IT” may emerge with the most technically savvy employees.

All in all, with lower end-user tolerance for updates and potential workarounds, organizations are more exposed to costly risks, including ransomware attacks or data leaks.

Security leaders must also consider the integration of costly tools that overlap with one another or go unused, as this is another key challenge of integrating an increasing number of security measures. Overburdened by tool sprawl, CISOs can lose track or fall behind compliance of security assets, resulting in needless costs, and dragging down user and company efficiency.

Lower end-user satisfaction ultimately leads to employee retention challenges as well – costing the enterprise time and money. In fact, as of 2023, the costs of turnover in a business for technical positions jumped to 100 to 150 percent of salary, impacting the business steps for onboarding and offboarding as well.

Striking the Balance Between Security & Satisfaction

To effectively balance end-user satisfaction and sufficient security protocols, organizations must adopt a pragmatic, holistic approach. Prioritizing user experience while maintaining seamless business operations and enterprise-wide security is paramount. This involves the critical element of assessing end-user experiences to comprehend the impact of existing and planned adoption of security tools.

To achieve the monitorization and measurement of real-time and historical end-user experience, enterprises can turn to modern, cloud-native Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) capabilities. By opting for modern end-user computing solutions, organizations can swiftly pinpoint areas of employee dissatisfaction, observe trends in compliance with security protocols, and gain real-time end-user experience insights to promptly address emerging issues. Business leaders will also gain insight into the specific areas where employees encounter disruptions with certain security tools – allowing organizations to thwart potential end-user challenges before they escalate.

This proactive approach enables the development of a tailored, data-driven cybersecurity strategy, ensuring sustained employee satisfaction and productivity and enhanced enterprise security. Business leaders will effectively be able to understand the impact that disruptive tools have on employees, and the costs to their organization, and mitigate growing pains. They’ll also be able to prevent any challenges associated with end-user satisfaction and, ultimately, increase employee retention.

Most importantly, enterprises will bolster security measures without generating any adverse effects on their people’s satisfaction and productivity.

The Future of Security for The End-User 

Turning a blind eye to the ongoing tension between security and user experience is an invitation to disaster. Disgruntled employees, frustrated by relentless updates and cumbersome tools, can lead to even greater risks for the enterprise as employees deflect burdensome security protocols. Not to mention costly talent drain and employee turnover consequences for the business.

To address these challenges, security leaders must consider the integration of modern end-user computing strategies, including cloud-native VDI solutions, that can analyze user satisfaction, productivity, and connectivity trends.

With greater insight into end-user experience, organizations can effectively bolster security and employee satisfaction, contributing to a resilient and harmonious digital environment.

About the Author

Amitabh Sinha has more than 20 years of experience in enterprise software, end-user computing, mobile, and database software. Amitabh co-founded Workspot with Puneet Chawla and Ty Wang in August 2012. Prior to Workspot, Amitabh was the general manager for enterprise desktops and Apps at Citrix Systems. In his five years at Citrix, Amitabh was vice president of product management for XenDesktop and vice president of engineering for the Advanced Solutions Group. Amitabh has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Amitabh can be reached online at @Workspot, and at Workspot’s company website https://www.workspot.com/.