Assessment methodology

Human Risk, Shadow IT & Security Culture Pulse: methodology and sources

This page explains how questions are structured, how the score is calculated, how critical gaps affect the result, and how the assessment should be interpreted.

Version 1.0Last reviewed: 2026-08-2312 questions

Purpose and boundaries

This is an awareness and decision-support assessment. It is not an audit, certification, legal opinion, or formal compliance determination. The score is designed to help leadership identify where deeper review, evidence, or remediation is warranted.

Scoring model

  1. Each question is scored from 0–4. The highest score represents a formalized, implemented, tested, and evidenced state.
  2. Questions are assigned to governance domains. Each domain score is the ratio of earned points to available points in that domain.
  3. Domain scores are combined into the overall score using the domain weights shown below.
  4. “Not sure” answers are treated as an uncertainty signal and may apply a modest uncertainty adjustment.
  5. Some foundational questions have critical rules. If a critical foundation is absent, the overall score can be capped so a high average does not hide material risk.

Domain weights

Reporting confidence22%

Whether people know how and feel safe to report issues.

Account habits15%

Password, MFA, and access behavior.

Shadow IT risk25%

Unapproved tools, SaaS sprawl, and workarounds.

AI and data handling18%

AI tool usage and sensitive data exposure.

Training relevance10%

Whether training matches real work.

Manager reinforcement10%

How managers support safe behavior.

Critical score rules

  • Unclear reporting paths create silent risk. (maximum score: 65)
  • Fear of blame can delay incident reporting. (maximum score: 60)
  • Frequent unapproved tool usage indicates shadow IT exposure. (maximum score: 65)
  • AI data exposure risk is present when guidance is unclear. (maximum score: 60)

How to use the result

Review the three lowest domains, critical flags, and evidence checklist together. The objective is not to generate a high score; it is to make missing decisions, owners, and evidence visible. When a major customer, audit, regulatory, or incident deadline exists, the self-assessment should be followed by independent validation.

Reference sources