Rafe Pilling
Senior Security Researcher, Secureworks
With rapidly evolving technologies and work models, digital transformation poses complex challenges for your cybersecurity infrastructure.
The velocity of our world’s current digital transformation, while necessary, has caused some businesses to accept a higher level of security risk. They don’t want to impede business progress, but truly transformative change requires both digital innovation and cybersecurity. Without security comes the potential for considerable financial and reputational harm.
In fact, 82 percent of IT security and C-suite respondents said they experienced at least one data breach because of digital transformation.
If it’s such a serious issue, why are some businesses not prioritizing security?
Maybe it’s not a priority for this year’s budget, organizations can’t find the right security talent, or there’s a lack of awareness. Others may believe that implementing certain security controls is too difficult or that additional steps are too burdensome.
Whatever the case may be, not prioritizing security leaves vulnerabilities, and understanding the division of responsibilities, especially where cloud providers, third parties, and authentication management are involved, is crucial.
Bolting cybersecurity on later in digital transformation is expensive, and for IT operations to function effectively, security can’t be siloed.
Business is more digital than ever
Cloud migrations, a distributed workforce, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the internetworking of operational technology (OT) expand the attack surface. No industry, field, or size of organization is immune, either.
Even if security is top of mind for your organization, these technologies introduce unforeseen vulnerabilities that your legacy security systems may not be able to prevent.
Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication
Threat actors attempt a cyberattack every 39 seconds, and cybercrime is the threat that’s most likely to affect Canadian organizations in the coming years. Cyber threats are also largely opportunistic, and the introduction of new technologies presents new vulnerabilities — just what attackers are looking for.
For instance, the time between initial access and ransomware being launched is shrinking, and overall tactics are becoming more advanced. Visibility across your infrastructure is crucial to swift detection and mitigation. Involving security teams in your ongoing digital transformation allows you to consider the evolving threat landscape throughout the change process.
With the increase in cyberattacks comes increased ramifications
Without comprehensive security practices and protocols to fortify your transformative processes, your business faces the possibility of financial damage.
In fact, Canadians have lost $4.9 billion to ransomware over the past year, with the average ransom demand falling between $164,772.27 and $659,246.27. Factor in downtime, and those numbers increase to millions of dollars.
However, money isn’t the only issue to consider. If breached, your organization will likely experience a loss of consumer trust and reputational damage, which makes recovery a significant challenge.
The velocity of digital transformation allows for invigorating advancement but also raises greater security questions. Cyber threats evolve constantly in expense, expanse, and sophistication. Your organization needs resilient security controls, regardless of where data is stored and where employees work from. The right prevention, detection, and response solution is critical.
