The Crucial Role of Cybersecurity in Digital Transformation
How can organizations integrate cybersecurity with digital transformation?
1. Cybersecurity should be prioritized, not treated as an afterthought
The truth is, everyone knows that cybersecurity is important for all types of organizations. Still, for several companies, cybersecurity remains an afterthought. Unfortunately, many organizations still view security as slowing down a project rather than enabling its success. Since most projects come with pressure to get them up and running as quickly as possible, companies typically end up making decisions that lack sound security considerations.
2. Cybersecurity experts should have an active part when organizations make critical decisions
Often, security experts are not included in marketing planning or business meetings when critical decisions are being made. If security experts are not present, organizations are exposing themselves to critical risks that could damage their reputation. Instead of calling in security experts when an attack has occurred, organizations should make sure that these experts take an active part at the beginning of digital transformation.
3. Employee training should remain one of the top priorities
Cybersecurity should not be limited to IT personnel only. Almost 90% of cyberattacks are caused by human error or behavior. Since the majority of the workforce handle computers, all employees in the organization should undergo training for cybersecurity best practices.
Training employees is not a guarantee that cyberattacks will no longer take place but teaching employees how to avoid opening doorways for hackers to get into, will certainly reduce these attacks considerably.
4. Roles and responsibilities of everyone in the organization should be clearly defined
This is especially true for personnel who will manage cyber defense and incident response. They should have a plan on how they will work together if a breach occurs and they should also help educate other employees on how to prevent attacks from taking place at their end.
5. Effective communication channels and relationships should be established with IT, operations and external service providers
Good relationships and open communication contribute greatly to the success of any organization. When communication is open and honest among team members, any problems with procedures, processes, and cybersecurity can be identified quickly and mutual cooperation will make it easier to come up with the best solution for every problem.
6. Robust security operations should always be conducted within the organization
Security operations should continuously monitor threat intelligence, technical intelligence and vulnerability management as an integrated process. Constant monitoring can help quickly identify problems thus, enabling incident response and recovery teams to apply the appropriate security solution to a specific problem.
Cyber risk management plays a crucial role in digital transformation. It must be included from the very beginning and cybersecurity solutions should be embedded across the organization from all types of technology used to the organization’s culture.
It may not be possible to completely stop cyberattacks but integrating cybersecurity with digital transformation is an organization’s best defense and will significantly reduce these attacks.
For many companies, digital transformation can be difficult. The best way to ensure that transitioning to digitalization is successful is to consult cyber experts.