An accelerated digital transformation, a more dispersed workforce, increased use of cloud computing, the vanishing perimeter, and the need to assess the risks associated with a proliferation of connected smart devices require focusing on the role of cybersecurity in digital transformation. These ever-changing threat landscapes highlight the need for organizations to transform their security postures to protect against cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities. With the emergence of new technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning, internet of things (IoT), big data, social media, and now, the metaverse, the threat is continually increasing. Cybersecurity measures need to be updated and adjusted to deal with increasing complexities. Let’s look at the key stakeholders determining the importance of cybersecurity in digital transformation.
Defense-in-depth vs. Defense-in-concert
Traditionally, in cybersecurity, the way of Defense-in-Depth was adopted where multiple layers of security were set up. Ancient Castles were safeguarded against invaders by tall unscalable walls, moats, bridges, and watchtowers. Similarly, the cybersecurity world has application defenses and controls, network defenses and controls, user and endpoint, and all kinds of layers and defenses. The cybercrime perpetrators, however, can work their way between the layers to cause huge monetary as well as reputational loss to organizations.
The challenge in the cybersecurity industry is to be able to reduce the risk per dollar spent instead of just adding security layers. Hence the more contemporary Defense-in- Concert approach has evolved. Emphasis is now on fewer layers that detect, defend, observe, and respond faster to be able to interdict the threat. The layers are no more individual and isolated but collective, interactive, and smart resulting in an exponentially faster and safer network effect.
What organizations should do for digital transformation and cybersecurity
It is becoming progressively important to craft in place an organization-wide cybersecurity strategy that aligns well with the company’s goals. Effective communication is a must to ensure that digital assets are secure while enhancing collaboration at both the senior and operational levels.
To cope with the rapid pace of digital transformation, organizations have engaged third parties to power initiatives such as cloud providers, robotics, and process automation, and IoT. While third-party collaboration provides increased speed, high efficiency, and greater agility, several risks surround this collaboration.
A survey by Aravo shows that 22% of respondents experienced a data breach caused in the past year. In-house IT Security teams need to create a clear policy for vetting all third-party services and analyzing the sensitivity of data handled by these services.
The major uptick in remote work setups and digital business is pushing organizations to apply for secure access no matter where their users, applications, or devices are located. To provide the level of security necessary to protect the variety of new systems implemented, many enterprises are shifting to more cloud-friendly and behavior-based security approaches. The security access service edge (SASE) framework enables businesses to upgrade their network edge and security simultaneously. Then the managed network and security services can provide expertise and support in a quickly evolving field.
The SASE framework is the convergence of network and security services. This framework brings geographically disparate endpoints together with a common security policy, whether you’re in a coffee shop, at home, or in an office. The SASE framework is somewhat of an evolution of software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)- taking the application awareness and traffic steering of wide-area network (WAN) and building upon that by extending to the cloud and providing security end-to-end. This approach allows the flexibility for deeper security protections as the extension of the network continues- further evolving businesses on their zero trust, multi-cloud, and edge computing journeys.
Conflicts and Solutions
Cybersecurity personnel often need to deal with conflicts with C-level executives. Security measures might act as roadblocks to the growth of the company. Growth and innovation take risks. However, as we are seeing the bottleneck of technology adoption across the enterprise weaken, there has been a rise in shadow IT as business units no longer need to go through IT to procure and deploy new technologies.
It is essential to bring the IT personnel and C-level executives together to ensure an efficient and secure digital transformation process. Moreover, they need to realize the level of risk inflicted by an insecure third-party service provider or a cloud service that increases the chances of reputational damage to your organization.
The new challenge following digital transformation is ensuring that they can scale a risk-aware culture across the entire enterprise to combat the rise of shadow IT and increase in technology adoption across other business units.
Great strides have been made in recent years for cybersecurity personnel to become business enablers. This means they are leveraging the advanced analytics and risk management capabilities at their disposal to create compelling narratives that help their executives understand the importance of cybersecurity in digital transformation for both consumers and the business.
By enhancing the communication between these two groups, the company can connect employee experience and communicate your goals when it comes to digital transformation.
Today’s business dynamics, particularly those undergoing an accelerated digital transformation need to craft in place an interactive, dynamic, business-friendly security system that can recognize, identify, and defend against internal and external threats and respond in exponentially quick time. Know how Aligned Studios can be your partner in digital transformation and cybersecurity.
