Digital Trust: Expectations for Tech Risk Practitioners

This morning, I had a great time sharing insights with an audience from West Africa on a topic themed: "Digital Trust: Expectations for Tech Risk Practitioners". Below were the key discussion points:

Definition of Digital Trust:

According to ISACA, Digital Trust is the confidence in the integrity of the relationships, interactions and transactions among providers and consumers within the digital ecosystem. This includes the ability of people, organizations, processes, information and technology to create and maintain a trustworthy digital world.

This definition differs from others because it focuses on how confidence is dependent on and manifests in people, processes, the organization itself and modern and emerging technologies. Of course, information is also a critical component of trust because it underpins every other component in a digital trust ecosystem.

It was important to let the audience know that;

• Digital trust centers on the relationship between parties and is broader than just a financial relationship. The key to this concept is trust. This trust is not simply about cybersecurity or privacy protection; it is about faith in the relationships between providers and customers.
• An enterprise can improve its relationship with consumers, enhance its reputation and increase brand loyalty by building digital trust.
• Focusing on digital trust is a natural progression of the digital transformation journey as more and more interactions happen online.
• Digital trust should be a consideration in all areas of an enterprise i.e. the people, technology, processes and organization and all products and initiatives should be built with digital trust in mind from the start.
• Digital trust requires significant iterative work, but enterprises that can demonstrate their digital trustworthiness can boost their reputation and gain an edge over less trustworthy competitors.
• To enhance digital trust, organizations can use a framework that provides a roadmap to achieve a digitally trustworthy ecosystem that checks all of these boxes: quality, security, privacy, reliability, ethics, integrity, transparency, honesty and confidence.
• A digitally trustworthy ecosystem encompasses Quality, data privacy, cybersecurity, Ethics & Integrity, Transparency & Honesty and Confidence.

We looked at a balanced scorecard approach to digital trust, Digital Trust Principles for IT Risk Practitioners, ISACA’s Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework (DTEF), the Hierarchy of the DTEF, and the key considerations for IT Risk practitioners and Digital Trust Professional in general can consistently foster Digital trust within the business environment.

Conclusion: Transparency is a key pillar of the Digital Trust, as IT Risk Practitioners, we have the responsibility of encouraging organizations to be open about their digital activities/initiatives and allow stakeholders to understand the decision-making processes and operations.