Everything we have learned about designing, building and sustaining a Security Champions network, written down and shared free of charge. It is the thinking behind CyBehave Heroes and the book the Champions planning tool refers to at every stage.
Most Security Champions programmes start with good intentions and a list of volunteers, and stall within a year because nobody designed them to last. The Rise of the Security Champion is about the difference between a list of names and a working network: one with coverage you can see, a rhythm that keeps going, and evidence that behaviour is changing because of it.
It follows a programme from the first conversation with a sponsor to the point where the network outlasts the people who started it. Along the way it covers why peer influence changes behaviour where training does not, how to choose Champions for trust rather than technical depth, what a 20-to-30-minute weekly role actually looks like, how to measure recovery and impact from the people who see it, and what to do when a programme has stalled.
It is written from experience: programmes we have built, watched, rescued and occasionally got wrong. We share it because the more good Champions networks there are, the better everyone's security gets. There is no catch and nothing to buy.
The chapters map directly onto the five stages of the Champions planning tool, so you can read the part you need when you need it.
What a Security Champion is and is not, why peer-led behaviour change succeeds where awareness campaigns plateau, and how to build the goals, business case and sponsorship a programme needs before anyone is recruited.
Coverage models that fit real organisations, choosing Champions for trust rather than technical knowledge, defining a role that fits around a day job, and getting managers to agree to the time.
Onboarding, the first Champion meeting, an engagement calendar that survives contact with the year, building capability without turning volunteers into security staff, and recognition that keeps people going.
Baselines, measuring behaviour from the people who observe it, telling real change from noise, and reporting to a board in a form it will act on.
The usual causes of a stalled network, how to take stock of what is actually there, and the honest choice between reviving, rebuilding and restarting.
Growing on evidence rather than enthusiasm, succession so nobody is a single point of failure, embedding the role in how the organisation works, and keeping the programme evolving.
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Download the ebook (PDF) →The PDF opens in your browser or downloads, depending on your settings. Share it with anyone who is building a programme.
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The planning tool turns the book into stages and actions you can tick off. Heroes is the platform built to run what the book describes.