The Ambit Group: Transforming Cybersecurity From the Inside Out

Homeland cybersecurity efforts have focused primarily on preventing external attacks and incursions rather than insider threats, despite research indicating that malevolent or unwitting insiders account for more than half of all security breaches. While technical components are essential to any cohesive cyber protection plan, The Ambit Group focuses on how federal organizations can connect the tissues of technology, culture, and people to stay secure, vigilant, and resilient.

Kim Hayes, co-founder and CEO of The Ambit Group points out that “we need to create a culture of cybersecurity for everyone in the organization. This means that we go beyond the existing training regiment, by making security engaging, relevant and the application practical.”

Designing a robust and effective security platform isn’t simply an IT problem – it’s an organizational behavior problem. Changing employee behavior is a difficult task, made even more difficult by their innate need to socialize and connect – behavior that frequently introduces security risks. The most successful federal agencies are changing the way security hygiene is viewed among its users and are proactively driving behavioral change to complement their technology initiatives and fully secure their organizations. The Ambit Group offers their federal partners the thought leadership, change management experience, and technology expertise that executives need to respond, secure, and protect the homeland smarter and faster.

Ambit specializes in designing technical environments that incorporate the hottest emerging innovations from Silicon Valley with proven organizational and human behavior analytics to minimize risks and power inclusive digital transformations.

Federal clients have come to depend on Ambit’s internal Strategic Partnership Group to identify the most promising emerging technologies that will work in the unique federal technology environment. “We assess new products across a wide spectrum of technologies to identify game changing products and partner with these companies to navigate the federal landscape and solve distinctly federal IT problems.”

When engaging with a new federal client, Ambit evaluates not only the strengths and weaknesses of their security technologies, but also assesses their business processes along with their organizational structure, culture, and communications – and how all need to work together to achieve their specific mission. Unlike other organizations that come in and rebuild processes from the ground up, Ambit helps the federal agencies transform without disrupting their daily operations. We believe that organizations have their own DNA and when we work with them, our goal is not to replace it but to enhance it and help every person be well prepared,” says Kim.

Understanding the nuances of each organization’s operational processes and mission demands, Ambit supports each engagement by a diverse team of experts who apply a rigorous, tested approach that focuses equally on performance and organizational health. Ambit helps leaders craft a distinct vision and set specific goals tightly linked to desired business outcomes and connect those with culture and capabilities that ensure that the changes made are successful and sustainable.

Among Ambit’s success stories, one that stand out is an agency that faced enormous challenges navigating the technology chaos of disparate systems, wasteful spending, and unfocused procurement. In order to fulfill their evolving mission, the agency had to undergo fundamental transformation so they could identify and assess all of their IT spending. Ambit trained their staff, managed communications, and recommended emerging technologies to connect with their staff and advance their mission. The transformation results enabled the agency’s leadership to manage performance measures, standards, and progress reports and recover over $75 million dollars. “It’s all about providing the flexibility to our clients to continually keep them sprinting forward rather than crawling,” explains Kim.

Ambit has developed pioneering, award-winning federal programs and has been recognized with numerous awards for innovation, performance, and excellence. Ambit continues to pursue their central mission of improving the lives of American citizens, transforming how government connects with their citizens, and protecting our homeland.