Should cybersecurity be part of your digital transformation strategy?

Cyber risks posed by digital transformation

Digital transformation is driven by infrastructures designed to meet the demands of new business opportunities and operations. But as these infrastructures shift, they become more complex and prone to intricate dependencies, configurations and management demands. This vastly expanded attack surface is ripe for malicious actors to exploit.

A 2024 report from Veeam confirms those concerns. The study said about one-quarter of IT decision-makers cited cyber threats as one of the top challenges of digital transformation initiatives. Other top concerns included environmental, social and governance goals; and skill gaps among staff.

Some common cybersecurity risks include the following:

• Data breaches. A data breach is unauthorized access to sensitive business data. This can lead to unintended sharing or exposure of confidential information, resulting in loss of competitive advantage, privacy and compliance violations as well as possible litigation and significant financial penalties. Cybersecurity transformation rethinks how data is classified, stored, protected, retained, accessed and destroyed. This may include stronger security policies as well as new encryption and data loss prevention (DLP) tools.
• Insider vulnerabilities. Employees can be an organization's own worst enemy. At best, a well-intentioned employee may download unauthorized software or fall victim to a phishing attack that introduces malware into the infrastructure. At worst, a malicious employee can alter, steal or delete critical data -- perhaps even for profit. Applying tools such as comprehensive access controls, end-to-end encryption, zero-trust security and strong data protection are cornerstones of an effective cybersecurity transformation.
• Outsider vulnerabilities. Digital businesses cannot operate in a vacuum; routine partner access to data and systems is now the norm. Opening the door to external users also increases the risk that data can be stolen or misused through partner carelessness or malicious actions. Cybersecurity digital transformation tightens safeguards around outside data access and storage with strong access controls, detailed monitoring and alerting, zero-trust policies and comprehensive compliance assessments of partner security capabilities.
• Infrastructure management. Infrastructures involve compute, storage and networking hardware, along with an array of services -- such as database and firewalls. Digital transformation expands the infrastructure locally or remotely -- say, by building, training and operating an AI platform in the public cloud. To keep systems secure, organizations must track dependencies, ensure system and application availability, monitor and enforce established configurations, establish the necessary reliability to mitigate unexpected disruptions and take prompt corrective actions when incidents occur. Cybersecurity digital transformation introduces an assortment of new tools, among them system health monitoring and configuration and change management tools.
• IoT networks. IoT devices are now key network components as they gather an array of real-time physical data for tasks such as predictive analytics, tracking and optimizations and machine learning. Yet, some IoT devices remain notoriously insecure. Cybersecurity transformation requires careful management -- such as changing default credentials and performing timely firmware updates -- to ensure adequate security and reliability. It may also justify deploying a dedicated and secure network exclusively for IoT devices.
• Outside attacks. DoS and distributed DoS attacks are growing in sophistication. These can be debilitating for businesses that rely on technology to interact with customers and generate revenue. Cybersecurity transformation considers the implications of external attacks and builds preventive measures such as distributed computing and other mitigations.

Benefits of integrating cybersecurity early in digital transformation process

A weak digital transformation cybersecurity integration policy runs the risk of erasing the competitive advantages of the transition, eroding trust with vital stakeholders (such as users and employees) and exposing the business to costly regulatory or legal consequences. Early integration offers key benefits, including the following:

• Better risk management. Prevents security incidents before they occur and ensures ongoing business continuity and adherence to regulatory requirements. The goal is a more resilient business better able to fend off attacks and disruptions and respond quickly to incidents as they occur.
• Stronger data protection. Prioritizes valuable business data and user privacy. Includes important implementation practices such as data encryption, data classification, storage tiering and protection, and other security measures such as access controls.
• Consistent security approach. Creates a uniform and consistent security architecture that is more efficient and easier to manage. Reduces the security architecture's cost and complexity.
• Better implementation. Gives businesses adequate time to develop and identify superior security architectures, tools, policies and processes. Helps ensure staff is well-versed in the changing security environment.
• Stronger reputation. Demonstrates a strong commitment to data protection and regulatory compliance from the start. Helps reinforce brand and business loyalty with business stakeholders, users, customers, employees and partners. Displays a commitment to comply with industry and government regulators.

To that end, every successful digital transformation depends on a corresponding cybersecurity transformation initiative -- one aimed at optimizing and upgrading the organization's entire security infrastructure and systems.

Challenges to cybersecurity transformation

Despite powerful tools and practices designed to beef up an organization's security posture, cybersecurity digital transformation poses challenges, including the following:

• Evolving risk landscape. Security can only protect against known risks, and new risks present an unknown factor that can lead to breaches. Cyberattackers constantly improve their sophistication and scope. Malicious actors use AI and other advanced techniques to find and exploit vulnerabilities. Modern attacks are more difficult to detect and prevent. Cybersecurity transformations must constantly evolve to meet these changing risks.
• New vulnerabilities. New technologies inevitably bring new vulnerabilities. A new device, service or platform needs patching, configuration management and careful monitoring. Any oversight exposes a vulnerability that can potentially be exploited. Even simple upgrades or new deployments must undergo scrutiny for proper integration into the cybersecurity environment.
• Poor integration. Solid security requires complete integration between devices and systems. For example, an IoT device or a rarely used server can easily be overlooked for proper configuration and firmware updates -- possibly opening a vulnerability that can be exploited. A cybersecurity digital transformation seeks a uniform environment where every device, resource and service is monitored and managed; nothing is overlooked or manually managed.
• Insider weaknesses. Even the most experienced and well-intentioned insider can make mistakes -- attaching a sensitive document to an unsecured email, opening a malware-infected file or succumbing to a phishing scam and exposing access to an attacker. Regular training, careful monitoring, DLP tools and zero trust environments are important elements in evolving cybersecurity infrastructures.
• Changing regulations. Governments and industries constantly introduce new guidance and regulatory legislation. Each new law imposes new requirements and security challenges. Consult with legal counsel and regulatory experts to understand the implications of new regulations and make the necessary security changes to accommodate them.
• Lack of staffing. Cybersecurity demands the attention of everyone on the IT staff -- from infrastructure architects to system administrators. Recruiting the staff necessary to implement and maintain a complex cybersecurity environment is challenging. The hiring process can slow a cybersecurity transformation and possibly leave elements of the security environment weakened. This technical debt may take years to correct.

Best practices for integrating cybersecurity into digital transformation

There is no single model for success, but you can take steps to improve the odds of your cybersecurity digital transformation strategy. Consider these cybersecurity best practices:

• Perform risk assessments. Conduct risk assessments before, during and after each digital transformation initiative. Certify that cybersecurity measures implemented to meet those risks still align with business goals. Risks include internal vulnerabilities as well as outside threats from third-party vendors or cloud and SaaS providers.
• Implement comprehensive monitoring. Deploy suitable monitoring tools or platforms, establish meaningful metrics and create an effective alerting and reporting system that can see and react to issues effectively.
• Conduct regular training. Mandate regular and recurring employee training, ranging from data classification to appropriate use policies governing phishing, malware and other social engineering attempts. Provide a resource for employees to ask questions and get further security guidance as potential issues arise.
• Deploy strong access control. Develop a security environment that relies on zero trust or least privilege principles. This ensures that users receive only the minimal access needed to perform their role. Strong password policies help create and rotate credentials ,while MFA helps verify that users are properly identified before access is granted.
• Implement comprehensive data protection. Create a comprehensive data protection plan. This can involve varied technologies and practices ranging from end-to-end encryption and data classification to DLP, data retention and secure destruction.
• Develop expert incident response. Incidents will inevitably occur. Craft a cybersecurity strategy that can detect, alert and respond quickly to incidents as they occur. This can involve human expertise, AI and other advanced tools designed to predict and respond autonomously to potential events. Proper incident response requires regular training and a comprehensive post-mortem assessment of incident management.

The future of cybersecurity digital transformation

As more companies take steps to transform their operations, enterprise cybersecurity planning is on the rise. Three major factors shape the future of cybersecurity, among them AI, proactive security and a greater emphasis on resilience. Let's examine each one.

• AI. AI is developing at an astounding pace. The technology has already demonstrated how it can analyze vast amounts of data and respond accordingly. AI is a strong candidate to underpin automation, threat prediction, detection, threat testing and validation, and highly responsive defenses in the years to come.
• Proactive security initiatives. Puts a new focus on attack prevention, such as vulnerability testing, threat intelligence and day-zero threat detection and zero-trust security models. Proactive security stops threats before they occur rather than responding to threats as they manifest into actual attacks.
• Organizational resilience. Involves building or enhancing capabilities designed to help a business mitigate attacks and recover in the aftermath of an incident. Important resilience capabilities include business continuity, advanced data protection, backup and recovery and comprehensive incident detection and response planning.

Stephen J. Bigelow, senior technology editor at Informa TechTarget, has more than 30 years of technical writing experience in the PC and technology industry.