Fear Might Get Clicks, but It Won’t Build Culture

In a dingy conference room with seven ring lights, the Department of Strategic Alarmism convened for its weekly FUD Sync.

At the head of the table sat Chad Panic, VP of Sales Velocity, sipping his energy drink labeled “Terrorberry Blast.” Next to him, Tammi Dread, Director of Market Hysteria, clacked aggressively on her blood-red keyboard. Across the table, Ronny from Creative, trench coat enthusiast and freelance smoke machine operator, pasted shadowy stock photos into a deck titled “Countdown to Compromise.”

“We need a fresh angle,” Chad barked. “Q2 is flat. Fear is soft. Uncertainty is down. And doubt? Don’t even get me started.”

Tammi nodded solemnly. “We need a breach. Or the whiff of one. Could someone stage a minor ransomware thing? Maybe lock a printer or something?”

“We could revive the flaming laptop slide,” Ronny offered. “Add more skulls this time. The CISO crowd loves skulls.”

“No,” Tammi hissed. “We already did that for the ZeroDayCation campaign.”

Kevin, the intern, raised a hand. “What if we just helped people understand the risks clearly? Without causing alarm?”

The room went silent. Chad slowly turned. “Kevin. This is the FUD Committee. Not a TED Talk.”

They pressed on.

By the end of the meeting, the team had brainstormed:

• A Google ad that just said: “Your users are one click away from financial ruin”

• A webinar titled: “Live Hack Demo (Definitely Real)”

• A branded doomsday clock that ticks louder the longer your users go untrained

Tammi stood up, thrilled. “Great work, everyone. Let’s terrify responsibly.”

	Core Belief: “If no one’s sweating by slide 3, did we even pitch?” LinkedIn Bio: Thought leader in pipeline acceleration, funnel combustion, and Fear-as-a-Service (FaaS). Background: Chad once closed a six-figure deal using nothing but a graph labeled “INCOMING BREACH” and the words “We’ll be the firewall to your future.” Known for high-pressure sales tactics, color-coded panic dashboards, and pitching always-on paranoia as a lifestyle. Hobbies: Adding 🚨 emojis to QBR decks Yelling “ACTIONABLE RISK” in meetings Quoting out-of-context stats in customer calls
	Core Belief: “No one buys prevention. They buy survival.” LinkedIn Bio: Crisis-led GTM strategist. Breach-aligned growth marketer. Inciting curiosity, terror, and clicks since 2014. Background: Tammi started in marketing automation and quickly realized that nothing drives engagement like a countdown clock and a dystopian color palette. She’s allergic to nuance and deeply passionate about anonymous survey data that looks scary. Hobbies: Building landing pages with flames on them Collecting breach headlines like Pokémon A/B-testing siren GIFs in outbound emails
	Core Belief: “If it doesn’t have a hooded figure, is it even a cyber threat?” LinkedIn Bio: Ex-illustrator, current visual fearmonger. I make slides that haunt procurement teams. Background: Ronny was once a respected designer, until he discovered the dark allure of gradient fire, matrix code overlays, and “enhanced uncertainty textures.” Ronny believes that every security graphic should feel like a Halloween movie poster. Hobbies: Stockpiling dark-mode dashboard screenshots Suggesting the return of WordArt Whispering “make it edgier” during feedback sessions

The FUD Fallout: Sandra’s Panic Buy

Sandra the CISO didn’t mean to fall for it. But after a lunch-and-learn featuring Chad Panic’s "Threat Level: Infinite" deck, she found herself panic-purchasing a security tool labeled “SEER™ (Security Enlightenment through Emotional Recalibration).”

It didn’t integrate well. It didn’t solve the actual problem. But it did come with a four-year contract and weekly alerts written in ALL CAPS.

Fear crept in. Slowly at first, then all at once.

• The training platform opened with a voiceover: “One click, and your company dies.”

• IT teams began drafting policy in response to hypotheticals rather than actual risk.

• People became afraid to ask questions. Mistakes were ignored, then actively erased.

One morning, Sandra walked into the break room and found Benji the Project Manager sobbing over a phishing simulation. Two engineers were in the middle of a heated argument about quitting before vs after the holiday break. And Roxie from HR was on the floor in the corner, rocking back and forth as she whispered about automated Trust Scores and sentiment surveillance.

That's when Nora from IT stepped in. She walked Sandra through the facts:

• When people are scared, they shut down. Fear-based messaging spikes anxiety and reduces cognitive processing. If your team feels threatened by training, they’ll disengage, and retention will plummet.

• Fear kills trust. Employees stop reporting mistakes when they think they’ll be punished. That silence delays incident response and makes minor issues spiral into major ones.

• Culture becomes the headline. Environments driven by fear often get exposed by Glassdoor, whistleblowers, or a public breach that shows the cracks. The reputational damage isn’t hypothetical.

On the flip side:

• Confidence is the real defense. People who feel equipped and supported react faster and more accurately in real incidents. Empathy in training increases response time and long-term recall.

• Psychological safety boosts reporting. If your team feels safe admitting mistakes, you’ll know about issues earlier and resolve them faster.

• The best security cultures are human-first. Trust-based environments lead to stronger collaboration across teams, better decision-making, and fewer reactive fire drills.

Translation? Fear might get clicks, but it won’t build culture.

Sandra nodded slowly, and then asked, "How can we fix this?"

Nora smiled. "I know a company that can help."

Here at Herd Security…

Our cybersecurity trainings and tools are designed to make people feel ready instead of rattled. We believe that awareness training should feel real, so we designed our platform around the way humans actually behave. That means:

• Realistic scenarios that don’t rely on scare tactics or bait-and-switch techniques

• Interactive micro-lessons delivered where work happens, like Slack or Teams

• Simulations that evolve, adapting to your environment and keeping pace with real attacker behavior (yes, even the weird AI stuff)

• And analytics that show you what people understand, not just what they clicked

We're not in the panic business. We're in the get-ready-for-the-weird-stuff business. To learn more, watch our demo to see how we work, or read our latest vishing blog for a realistic look at how social engineering unfolds and how to handle these attacks.