The success of a digital business depends on its ability to execute a digital transformation plan successfully. This process can be complex and daunting, but it is essential for businesses looking to stay competitive in today’s market.
While many aspects go into a successful digital transformation, security should be one of your top priorities. It’s important that many businesses make it their sole focus. After all, if your data isn’t safe, then you can’t truly take advantage of the benefits that digital transformation offers.
The Role of Security in Digital Transformation
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In Contino’s report, Matt Davis, Head of Cloud Engineering, Lloyds Banking Group, believes that the role of security in digital transformation is to understand the business needs and objectives and then work with the relevant teams to deliver a secure solution that meets those needs.
“It’s not just about building the technologies, but about building systems that engineers want to use and can scale as the transformation journey progresses,” he said.
As part of one of Lloyds’ digital transformation goals, taking your security team with you on the digital transformation is imperative. “Take your security team with you – In heavily regulated organisations, like banks, it pays massive dividends to involve the security and control teams early in the conversation.”
Investments in transformational technologies might be pointless if they can’t safeguard the company, its customers, or other essential assets. The intricacy and speed of development keep challenging even the most sophisticated security operations.
With security, there are two key aspects that you need to consider: data security and infrastructure security.
Data security is protecting your data from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. This includes making sure that only authorised users have access to your data and using encryption and other technologies to protect it from being accessed by unauthorised individuals.
Infrastructure security is protecting your infrastructure from attacks. This includes ensuring that your network and servers are properly configured and secured and that it backs up your data in case of an attack.
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations are urgently redesigning their fundamental technological stack, driving cybersecurity to the top of the agenda.
Tips for Ensuring Data Security
There are some steps that you can take to ensure that your data is secure during the digital transformation process.
First, you need to ensure that only authorised users have access to your data. This can be done by implementing user authentication and authorization measures, such as two-factor authentication.
You should also use encryption to protect your data from being accessed by unauthorised individuals. Encryption is a process of transforming readable data into an unreadable format so that only authorised users can decrypt it.
You also need to have a plan in place for what to do in the event of a data breach. This should include steps for identifying and responding to incidents, as well as backing up your data so that you can restore it in the event of a breach.
In addition, you need to make sure that your security solutions are up-to-date and that your employees are using the latest security technologies.
Finally, you need to create a disaster recovery plan in case of an attack or other unexpected event. This plan should include steps for restoring your data and systems, as well as for communicating with your employees and customers.
Tips for Ensuring Infrastructure Security
Firstly, you need to configure your network and servers properly. This includes ensuring that your firewall is configured correctly and that your servers are patching their software regularly. Moreover, you should back up your data regularly. This will ensure that you have a copy of your data if it is lost or destroyed in an attack.
Those are some fundamental security principles that need to be implemented from the start; the more complex procedures, such as vendor management, can be incorporated later because it slows the digital transformation process down.
Nevertheless, organisations need to realise that despite implementing a great digital transformation process, security breaches could still happen. A Ponemon report revealed that 82% of IT and C-suite executives stated they experienced at least one data breach because of digital transformation.
Companies must ensure that their security team, C-suite executives and key stakeholders all understand the implications and importance of digital transformation cybersecurity.
Conclusion
Security is an essential part of digital transformation. By taking the proper steps to secure your data and infrastructure, you can ensure that your business is protected during this important process.
By following these tips, you can help ensure that your business’s data is secure during the digital transformation process. However, it is essential to remember that security is an ongoing process, and you should always be on the lookout for new threats.
