Remember, Improved Digital Agility Requires Data Security Management, Too

We’ve unpacked the term “Digital Transformation” for some time now, and the urgency for meaningful digitalization only continues to increase from enterprise to enterprise. But as an IT leader, do you know which areas of transformation are worth investing over others? It can be a tough call to make if your IT personnel are already struggling to take on additional projects and workflows or if your budget isn’t as forgiving as it once was.

Digital transformation investments commonly center around improving areas such as customer experience, operational efficiencies, staff retention rates, and employee productivity. But none of these mentioned areas is the most popular – that would be data security. In our recently published update about digital transformation, data security management was easily the top objective worth investing in at 26%. This comes as no surprise given the heightened urgency around recent (and notable) ransomware events and the nation’s current cybersecurity status.

Solidify Agility With Data Security Management

Companies look forward to earning greater digital agility because it aids efficiency at the operational and customer levels. But greater agility also opens the door a little wider for threat actors, too. As enterprises are now comprised of vast IT estates with thousands of touchpoints, each one represents a potential vulnerability or attack avenue. That’s why your team cannot slight its data security management in the least bit.

According to CNet, there were 1,862 data breaches reported in 2021, an increase of 68% over the previous record set the year before. The frequency of breaches also affects the cost of recovery for organizations. Ponemon Institute found that the cost of a single data breach in 2021 was $4.24 million, a 10% increase over the average cost of $3.86 million in 2019. This is especially difficult for companies that went remote over the last few years. Due to a lack of needed technology improvements and new security threats, remote organizations paid an average of $107 million higher than the organizations that stayed in the office. The increased rate of cyberattacks makes it evident that IT leaders cannot ignore data security.

Data Security, Protection, and Privacy: How They Relate

Data security is not the same as data privacy or data protection. However, each of the terms are incredibly important pieces to your enterprise’s cybersecurity puzzle. For instance, you may implement a multifactor authentication system to properly authenticate users before connecting to a data directory. Should a threat actor seize a privileged account with the required access to encrypt the directory, a backup system can be used to restore the compromised data.

Here, data security and data protection work together. It is worth noting that meaningful data security features three core elements of what is referred to as the CIA Triad security model. And no, we can assure you that ‘CIA’ has nothing to do with a well-known intelligence agency.

• Confidentiality: Ensures that data is only accessed by authorized individuals.
• Integrity: Ensures that data is trustworthy, accurate, and authentic by retaining it in
• a pristine and untampered state.
• Availability: Ensures that data is available to those that need it to do their job.

Streamline Your Data Security Strategy

Effective data security management doesn’t mean throwing wasted dollars at another third-party cybersecurity service. In fact, many see the strategy of purchasing additional security tools upon the discovery of a new attack methodology to be non-productive and create unnecessary complexity that could potentially consume too much attention of internal staff. According to the Cisco 2020 CISO Benchmark Report, 81% of organizations that utilized 50+ security vendors had 10,000+ records impacted. Many data breaches can be prevented by applying an available patch created for the designated vulnerability. Surveys have shown that as much as 30% of all new security investments are underutilized, or sometimes not even used at all.

A sound data security strategy should include at least some of the following security tools, protocols, and policies:

• A next general firewall at the network perimeter is essential to be able to monitor and filter network traffic.
• The memberships of highly privileged groups should be monitored to be made aware of changes.
• Identity and access management (IAM) measures should be implemented in conjunction with role-based access controls (RBAC) to enforce authentication and authorization. Also ensure that only authorized users can access or transfer data.

Furthermore, data security strategies should be centered around a zero-trust security featuring these fundamentals:

• The network is always assumed to be hostile.
• Internal and external threats always exist on the network.
• Network locality is not sufficient for deciding trust in a network.
• All devices, users, and network flows are authenticated and authorized.
• Policies must be dynamic and calculated from as many sources of data as possible.

Speak with our seasoned data security specialists who can analyze both your business objectives and security risks to create a duty of care strategy that not only reduces your enterprise’s exposure to the risk of attack, but also the risk of business disruption, non-compliance and litigation. Data security and digital transformation go hand in hand – WEI can show you how.

Next Steps: If you finished this article wanting more, download our fresh white paper, Why Data Security Is Required For Meaningful Digital Transformation. This insightful white paper dives into the data security trends that IT leaders are following and what is streamlined for meaningful digital transformation journey. It also further explains the differences between data security, data privacy, and data protection.