As cyber security continues to change from a cost to an enabler, progressive companies and economies are embracing the sometimes difficult transition needed to drive disruption, create differentiation and accelerate their businesses.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, organisations that choose to approach cyber security as a cost of business rather than a growth driver are at a significant disadvantage to their peers, and more seriously, could become vulnerable to the crippling effects of modern cyberattacks and all the losses they entail.
It is widely agreed that an unwillingness to invest in appropriate cyber security controls will likely cost significantly more in the long-run. Cyber security is an essential part of any organisation, and investment to increase the entity’s security posture ought to be ongoing and critical.
Indeed, cyber security as an economic accelerator when planned correctly goes further than just safeguarding a digital environment. In a modern society, in which digitisation holds the key to further economic development and personal happiness, securing digital infrastructure is akin to securing our way of life.
Resilient digital networks and connected devices must inspire trust in order to be effective. Trust encourages usage, and much of that usage results in transactions that drive economies, to the benefit of multitudes of parties — virtual and real-world, domestic and international. Thus a crucial yet often unheralded aspect of building cyber security resilience is the establishment and maintenance of trust; which is the process by which a party’s identity is authenticated and validated to operate in a prescribed manner.
For digital ecosystems to operate optimally, a holistic, end-to-end approach to cyber security is required, irrespective of the source of the threat. Cyber security needs to be placed at the centre of digitisation, and an ongoing monitoring and proactive security stance adopted, defending the foundation on which economic activity can successfully and sustainably occur.
Smart governments are in need of processes that guarantee the security and integrity of digital activities, while enterprises need to ensure that trust in a digitised environment is maintained at the very highest levels of availability, allowing companies and individuals to exchange information confidentially, confident of the authenticity of the source.
Forecasts from international research houses predicting how much is set to be invested in cyber security in the coming years is only part of the story. This investment, while significant and vital, does not take into consideration the potential accrual of massive economic gains should digital infrastructure be secured and trusted, and utilised correctly.
According to a short report published by the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) in March 2016, the agency’s key messages to industry with respect to cyber security playing a successful role as an economic enabler included:
• Consider new business models that capitalise on security as a differentiator of products and services
• Establish sectorial requirements for information security in order to move the cyber security market
• Invest more in awareness and education on security at all levels
• Reduce operational expenditure by improving risk management
• Secure the whole life-cycle of products by using security and privacy by design
• Improve cooperation within and across industry segments and national borders to improve threat to intelligence and promote the application of good practices
• Pro-actively drive standardisation through strong industry representation
• Support cyber security and privacy certification schemes to improve customer confidence
• Collaborate with academia to ensure that quality research results in concrete products and services
As a member of the global cyber security community, we are the protectors of the sophisticated digital environment that now prevails, and in order to continue progressing as societies, it is essential this interdependent, interconnected ecosystem is protected at all costs. Cyber threats will evolve over time, and it is critical that as the guardians of technological progress, we remain vigilant and innovative.
The stakes are higher than they have ever been, and are likely to continue to rise, matched only by the potential pace of this transition. Digital transformation is now such an integral part of our existence that the cost of a breach is no longer being counted in just monetary terms, but in lost lives and altered civilisations. Failure of this ecosystem is not an option.
— The writer is the Chief Executive Officer of DarkMatter, an international cyber security company based in the UAE.
