No digital transformation without cybersecurity
Increasing IT infrastructure complexity and talent gaps are making it more and more difficult to protect against cyberattacks – 76% of organizations see organized cybercrime increasing and 50% are investing in network security to manage risk.
As organizations modernize their operations, it’s essential to start thinking about security right at the beginning of the transformation process.
Consider a bank that aims to enhance customer experience with a new app. If functional requirements and coding don’t progress alongside security, potential vulnerabilities may only be identified at the eleventh hour. In contrast to this reactive process, a secure-by-design approach would weave security into the project’s fabric from the very beginning, even as early as the ideation and business requirement phases.
“Secure by design” is not a service or technology; it’s a holistic approach to security, like that of zero trust. This approach involves asking critical questions about data assets and their sensitivity and implementing concepts like role-based access control. It’s a guiding philosophy we apply not only in software development but also when designing network, data center and cloud infrastructure.
Within this secure-by-design framework, I use the six Cs of cybersecurity to decide where and how to plan transformation.
Budgets are not infinite, so cost is a significant factor in cybersecurity. The return on security investment is a key metric for CISOs aiming to optimize their security budgets, so they must make tough choices.
With various investment options available, from firewall upgrades to multifactor authentication, CISOs must strategically choose where to allocate resources to optimise their security posture. They must quantify the impact of the security investment and weigh it up against the budget. At NTT DATA, we have a methodology to help our clients make the right investment decisions.
Compliance is no longer a technical concern and has grown but a board-level discussion. Take, for instance, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) that governs credit card transactions. Failing to comply not only results in hefty fines but also causes great reputational damage. At worst, payment-processing corporations can cut ties with your business.
With compliance becoming a fundamental board issue, CISOs must ensure that their organizations adhere to industry standards and regulations to safeguard both financial interests and brand reputation.
The shortage of cybersecurity professionals is a well-known challenge. Competencies are a crucial aspect of cybersecurity and is directly correlated with consolidation. Large companies have multiple security vendors – one client we dealt with had 200 security vendors – which already creates complexity that’s overwhelming to manage. Things get even worse when you’re under attack: all the alerts light up like a Christmas tree, and the poor security analyst must decide what to do.
Complexity is an internal enemy. But, by consolidating security controls under a few platform vendors, organizations can simplify operations, increase automation, and reduce costs. With consolidated tools, you need fewer security analysts to keep your environment secure.
It feels like the whole world is moving to cloud. Over 90% of our clients have already moved part of their applications and workloads to cloud environments. Since different workloads run in different clouds, the challenge once again becomes complexity, especially in enforcing a unified corporate security policy across diverse cloud instances.
Multicloud security, therefore, requires careful consideration and automation so that the management of security policies does not become a nightmare. Organizations need to leverage expertise to navigate the intricacies of securing data spread across various cloud platforms. This forms part of the journey to zero trust.
Convergence marks the integration of networking and security. The focus is on secure access service edge (SASE), which brings together software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) with security services edge (SSE). This convergence involves moving traditional security controls to the cloud.
By unifying security controls and workloads in the cloud in the safe zone between the internet and the enterprise network, organizations can enhance digital transformation, providing better protection and orchestration through a centralized management interface.
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