The Scaffolding Gap: 7 Questions to Ask About Your Human Risk Program’s Foundation

Every security team wants to improve their human risk management program. But very few stop to ask: what is our program actually built on?

Many programs begin with noble intent—to reduce risk through awareness and education—but never develop the foundational scaffolding needed to scale. Instead, they grow reactively: a training module here, a phishing simulation there, often with no overarching strategy or unifying model. Over time, these efforts stack up like scaffolding made of mismatched pipes and rope.

The result? A rickety structure that may hold up for a while—but it’s one storm away from collapse.

At Cybermaniacs, we see this every day: companies with strong commitment but shaky foundations. To help security leaders assess the strength of their scaffolding, here are seven hard-hitting questions to ask.

1. What Framework Guides Your Human Risk Program?

If your answer involves checklists or compliance requirements, you’re not alone. But frameworks should go beyond ticking boxes. A mature program uses a behavioral framework that links activities to measurable outcomes. Whether it’s competency-based models, psychological behavior stages, or culture-informed mapping—you need a skeleton before you can add muscle.

2. Do You Know Your Risk Hotspots by Role, Region, or Function?

Human risk isn’t evenly distributed. Some roles have more access, more power, or more exposure. Mature programs map risk by human factors: what people do, where they work, and how they interact with systems. If you’re still running generic, one-size-fits-all training, your scaffolding isn’t aligned to your actual threat surface.

3. Are You Measuring Culture, Behavior, and Competency—or Just Completions?

Completion rates tell you who clicked. They don’t tell you who’s vulnerable, resistant, or silently disengaged. If your scaffolding includes measurement tools, it should track culture signals, competency evolution, and behavior change over time. This is how you build for long-term resilience, not just short-term compliance.

4. Who Owns Human Risk Across the Business?

Ownership is often a missing beam. If the program lives only within the infosec or training team, it lacks the cross-functional strength required for change. Executive sponsorship, department alignment, and business-wide clarity on roles and responsibilities are essential.

5. Can Your Program Scale Without Burning Out Your Team?

If your scaffolding requires manual effort to run simulations, manage content, or build campaigns, it’s going to crumble as you grow. Look at where your people are spending their time. Is it strategic work, or are they duct-taping platforms together? Scalability starts with operational efficiency and support.

6. Is Your Approach Designed for Today’s Threat Landscape?

Legacy awareness programs were built for legacy threats. Today’s environment demands design thinking: personalization, adaptive content, behavioral segmentation. If your scaffolding hasn’t evolved since 2018, it’s not ready for deepfakes, AI-driven attacks, and hybrid work complexity.

7. Are You Able to Tell a Cohesive, Board-Level Story?

Scaffolding isn’t just for delivery—it supports storytelling. Mature programs create clear narratives that connect metrics to outcomes, and outcomes to business value. If you can’t explain your human risk maturity in one slide, the foundation needs work.

Call to Action

We help organizations move from awareness activity to HRM maturity—with science-backed frameworks, diagnostic assessments, operational support, and creative campaign delivery.

Want to know where your program scaffolding stands? We’ll show you what’s working, what needs shoring up, and how to build for the future.

Talk to our team or follow us on LinkedIn to learn how we make security programs resilient, not rickety.

TL;DR

• Many Human Risk Management programs lack foundational scaffolding to scale

• Security teams often rely on ad hoc activities, not aligned frameworks

• Key gaps include measurement, ownership, segmentation, and scalability

• Today’s threats demand modern design and strategic storytelling

• Cybermaniacs helps teams strengthen their program foundation for long-term success