How to Win at Digital Transformation and Security

In a rapidly changing business landscape, you’re under constant pressure to innovate. But as you work to differentiate your product or service, you must find the right balance between digital transformation and security.

Digital transformation just became easy. Find out how.

Companies that create strong digital strategies can gain a competitive edge, whereas those that cling to legacy systems risk getting left behind.

Digitally transform or lose

Survey findings show that 86% of enterprise decision makers say they have two years to digitally transform before they begin to suffer from financial and competitive threats. This is motivation to act quickly, because traditional companies are being upended by new entrants leveraging digital technologies. Established companies often struggle to meet current demands, unlike startups, which are built to address them. Like Dan Schulman, CEO of Paypal, said: “The biggest impediment to a company’s future success is its past success.” Digital transformation is exciting. With it comes the promise of improved operational efficiency, higher employee productivity, and hopefully a better customer experience. But there are many factors to consider during the planning stages.

Digital Transformation and Security

Don’t let the excitement of digital transformation distract you from one of the biggest threats to your business: cybersecurity. Digital transformation and security must go hand and hand, so it’s important to account for vulnerabilities when creating your transformation strategy. When IT infrastructure is rebuilt, security needs to be rewired in synchrony. This includes everything from legacy data center IT to multi-cloud ecosystems. The ultimate goal is to provide security for all aspects of business operations. Here are three tips for successful digital transformation and security practices.

1. Provide security education to employees

When planning your digital transformation, consider where security vulnerabilities will arise. Most likely, they will occur when employees are still learning to use the new technology effectively. By implementing security processes into your employee training, you can prevent breaches or accidents that result from human error. While bad actors garner the most cybersecurity press, employee negligence or lack of protocols to protect sensitive data actually account for four out of five data breaches.

2. Fortify data protection

IT and security teams need to protect data that is affected during the digital transformation process. Pay attention to what kind of information is being moved when you change technology systems. What do you need to do to fortify security? By focusing on this, you can predict potential risks, spot vulnerabilities, and respond quickly.

Empower your employees to embrace digital transformation with the right tools.

3. Create best practices for handling security incidents

As the volume of infrastructure platforms grow, the potential for a security incident to occur increases. That’s why it’s integral to have a set of best practices in place for handling a variety of problems. After detecting an issue, employees should know the next steps. For example, they should notify IT, change their passwords, and learn about what caused the breach to happen in the first place.