The wall you haven't built yet
Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover. None of them address the culture that determines whether your people actually execute on them. That's the sixth wall. No vendor sells it. No product builds it. We do.
The Five Functions + The Missing One
Attackers aren't breaking in anymore - they're logging in. AI has made social engineering faster, cheaper, and nearly undetectable. A voice can be cloned from 60 seconds of audio. A video call can be faked well enough to authorize a $25 million transfer. The human attack surface is now the primary battlefield - and most organizations are defending it with an annual compliance training their employees have already forgotten.
Technical controls can't fix a culture problem. Behavior change can.
The Opportunity
The human element isn't a new challenge. But it is a solvable one - once you understand the two gaps that keep most organizations from building their sixth wall.
Employees don't think cybersecurity is their problem. They see it as IT's job - or worse, as the thing that slows them down. So they click. They reuse passwords. They trust the voice on the call that sounds exactly like the CFO.
Security awareness programs check a compliance box, but they don't change how people think. Real culture transformation requires the same strategic rigor companies apply to customer experience or brand identity - not a once-a-year training module.
Only 47% of board directors feel their CISO effectively communicates the impact of evolving threats. Only 30% describe the CISO-board relationship as "strong and collaborative." Security gets treated as overhead because it's communicated like overhead.
When security leaders can frame cybersecurity as a business enabler - in language the C-suite and board actually respond to - budgets grow, alignment deepens, and the culture program gets the executive sponsorship it needs to succeed.
Sources: IANS / Artico Search / CAP Group 2026 Benchmark Report
Free Guide for Security Leaders
This free guide maps seven security functions to the business outcomes they protect - with ready-to-use language for board presentations, budget discussions, and executive conversations.
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Trusted By
Whether you're a CISO preparing for the board, a CRO quantifying human risk, or a security leader ready to build the culture your program depends on - the conversation starts here.
Build the Sixth WallServices
We work where technical solutions can't reach: the human decisions, executive narratives, and cultural behaviors that determine whether your organization is truly secure.
Security gets treated as overhead because it's communicated like overhead. We help CISOs and security leaders reframe cybersecurity as a business enabler - in language the board and C-suite actually respond to. The result: larger budgets, stronger alignment, and the executive sponsorship every security program needs.
We architect the cultural shift where every employee believes cybersecurity is their own personal imperative - not IT's burden. We assess your current culture, design the behavior-change roadmap, and build the internal narrative that makes security feel like identity, not compliance.
Immersive workshops and executive sessions on the threats that bypass every technical control: deepfakes, social engineering, AI-powered phishing, and the psychology of manipulation. Your team leaves understanding not just what to watch for - but why it matters personally.
Genelle's skill in analyzing audience insights allows her to craft messages that truly resonate. A strategic thinker, she is able to craft compelling narratives based on data-driven insights - a unique skill that sets her apart. She helped me, as an executive, tell authentic stories that resonated with my internal and external target audiences.
Aimee Cardwell, Former SVP & CISO, UnitedHealth Group
About
Sixth Wall was founded by Genelle Heim - a communications leader who spent her career inside the world's largest technology and cybersecurity organizations, and who led the team behind a U.S. patent in AI-driven security behavior change.
Genelle Heim, Founder
Most communications consultants can write. Few understand how a CISO thinks, what a board needs to hear, or why security awareness training fails to change employee behavior. Genelle does - because she built her career inside the organizations where these problems live.
From advising Fortune 3 executive leadership to representing a Fortune 500 Chairman at the United Nations, from semiconductor fabs to cybersecurity war rooms, Genelle has counseled CEOs, Chairmen, CISOs, and SVPs through transformations, crises, and acquisitions that defined their companies. She led communications for executives who went on to become CEO of Intel - twice.
She doesn't just communicate about cybersecurity - she's operated inside it. Genelle led the organization that pursued and secured a U.S. patent in AI-driven security behavior change - the exact intersection of culture, technology, and human behavior that Sixth Wall is built on.
Counseled CISOs and security executives at Fortune 3 scale. Deep fluency in translating technical risk into the language of business impact, board governance, and enterprise value.
Led the organization that secured a U.S. patent in AI-driven security behavior change - the foundation on which Sixth Wall's culture transformation methodology is built.
Built communications capabilities from scratch at a Fortune 3 company with 465,000 employees. Managed M&A communications for transactions up to $7 billion.
Delivered executive masterclasses and leadership workshops across three continents. Praised as "the perfect mix for an executive trainer" by the Dean of Ecole des Ponts Business School.
Authored research cited by Harvard University. Career spanning semiconductors, cybersecurity, healthcare, enterprise software, and AI.
Contact
Whether you're a CISO preparing for the board, a CRO quantifying human risk, or a security leader ready to build the culture your program depends on.
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We work with a select number of organizations at a time to ensure the depth of engagement each deserves. We're particularly well-suited for security leaders and executives at Fortune 500 companies who are building or transforming their security culture, preparing for high-stakes board or C-suite communications, or facing an AI-era threat landscape that their current awareness programs weren't built for.
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