Digital & Cyber

Successful businesses always want to provide the best value to customers and maintain optimal operations.  This can’t be done without adopting digital transformation advances.  Digital transformation has optimized all business processes, but it also keeps transforming due to the demands of consumers and the growth of the digital space.   

Almost everything moved online recently.  During the height of the pandemic there was a huge remote workforce and lockdown sped up the transition for all businesses to go digital otherwise people wouldn’t have had the possibility to buy food or have basic necessities, go to school, and so forth.  Even though now we’re back to a hybrid workforce and out and about thanks to not being in lockdown anymore, the world has pretty much accepted that online is here to stay.  The shift has been solidified.  For this reason, the speed and agility to successfully stay online requires digital transformation to keep advancing.  Otherwise, it won’t be sustainable. 

This also means cybersecurity needs to pick up the pace and work with new environments.  Keeping eyes on more than solely the office network with security assessments for example.  We are expanding to cloud security for the environment of the cloud, no more only in-house upkeep or remote workforce training.  Everything has expanded to multiple work environments.   

Business and technology need to run securely, otherwise there are huge risk factors that can bring down business operations. Our national infrastructure is in danger without security, the health of patients in hospitals, not to mention client data and the potential for complete business failure. 

Spending on digital transformation is expected to reach $1.8 trillion in 2022.  This is because companies have to start working with digital completely if they’re going to make it.  Any organization that is refusing to update the way they do business are slowly shutting down. 

Now imagine, one security incident can present the very same risk to a company.  Last year’s IBM study showed that the average cost of a data breach reached $4.24 million.  As you can see, this is not chump change. 

Let’s start with safeguarding digital assets.   

Many companies have a digital transformation officer or if not, there is someone in the IT department that takes care of digital transformation.  This person manages digital asset inventory, highlights resources that must be secured such as data centers or network repositories and business data.  So, accounting for every asset that has been acquired for the digitization of the business processes.  

To further focus on digital transformation security you also want to do the following things. 

• Identify ownership of the digital assets. 
• Identify valuation of the digital assets. 
• Limit access to only who needs to have access. 
• Create a list of who has access and what limits or not limits are present. 
• Have a comprehensive monitoring solution in mind to ensure assets are always preserved and consistently go through the maintenance necessary to stay up-to-date and functional. 

Having taken the time to do the above mentioned, you want to make sure cybersecurity management takes place with the digital transformation officers (DTOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) working together.   

• There must be open and effective communication between the DTOs and CISOs so that they may look at the software for digital projects.  This is to ensure that all security measures are taken to protect the software and technology being used from hacking and ransomware attacks.   
• They will also need to coordinate on business continuity and incident response plans to minimize the damage that can come from breach and/or reduce down-time with other unexpected events. 

A DTO should have knowledge of the latest cybersecurity trends so that they may know how to adopt biometric technology securely or what the latest ransomware attacks are, as well as the most recent phishing scams about.  Of course, the CISO should be there to give them in-depth insights on all those topics too.  

It is a working partnership to achieve the ideal cybersecurity posture within any business.  It starts with the company’s interest in creating a company culture that has cyber resiliency in the forefront of digital transformation advancements.  This means all departments on board and people too.  The collaboration of the DTO and CISO is only a start. You want all departments and leadership heads within the company to collaborate on cybersecurity matters, even the board.   

The type of company culture on cybersecurity and digital transformation is essential to when things go wrong.  In addition to the guidance shared above, make sure you are also holding cybersecurity awareness training and team practices for your business continuity and incident response plans. 

If you need further support, please feel free to schedule a free cybersecurity consultation here: https://calendly.com/ncxgroup