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0771 570 4894Welcome to the first edition of our newsletter! The first week of the month we will be giving insights into the world of cyber security, data protection and regulatory compliance.
The last two weeks we have posted about digital trust and what it means. In this edition of our newsletter we explore why digital trust matters and why some companies thrive after cyber security and data loss incidents.
In ISACA define hashtag#digitaltrust as the confidence in the integrity of the relationships, interactions and transactions among providers and consumers within an associated digital ecosystem. This includes the ability of people, organizations, processes, information and technology to create and maintain a trustworthy digital world. (ISACA definition in the 2023 State of Digital Trust Report)
This is establishing that the world is interconnected and we cannot think we are in a silo as far as our own cyber security and data protection. We have to think can our service providers, suppliers and customers trust our cyber security and data protection controls and can they trust ours.
Some companies recover and maintain loyalty after a cyber security or data loss incident, or even multiple incidents. Why is that?
It relates directly to the company's actions and communications before, during and after an incident. People tend to understand if a company had a focus on cyber security and data protection and their data was treated with a we must look after this valuable data attitude.
Questions that will be asked by incident investigators and regulators after an incident will be:
There are digital trust related benefits and consequences for not having a strong digital trust posture.
High levels of digital trust can lead to the following benefits:
Organisations with a low level of digital trust often experience the following consequences.
To summarise organisations that have a strong digital trust from customers and other stakeholders have a positive reputation, fewer privacy breaches, fewer cyber security incidents and stronger customer loyalty than organisations that have a low level of digital trust. An organisation with a low level of digital trust suffers a decline in reputation, have more privacy breaches, more cyber security incidents and lose customers.
We can expect new, serious and and likely unexpected digital issues and incidents will occur in the future. For example, there is the growing threat of AI and machine learning in cyber attacks. Whether the next event creating uncertainty and threatening our resilience is another pandemic, civil unrest, natural disaster, cyber attack or something not yet imagined, the keys to success revolve around digital trust, resilience and agility.
Building digital trust is not a tick box exercise, it requires senior management buy-in and drive to filter it down through an organisation. It must also embrace the knowledge and empathy needed to address the important human, cultural, historical and experiential factors that enable trust. It goes beyond fulfilling expected or contractual obligations and extends into establishing a rapport that provides stakeholders with confidence and assurance.
Many organizations can increase their agility and ability to recover from attacks and other incidents if their commitment to digital trust is made clear, enforced, measured and communicated. Having digital trust firmly embedded throughout an organization helps it become more resilient when unavoidable and increasingly sophisticated attacks occur.
This creates the path that allows organizations to do the right thing in the right way—and achieve their strategy objectives.
If you have concerns about your digital trust, cyber security or data protection o contact us.
Acknowledgement - ISACA 2023 State of Digital Trust Report
