Important Update
Digital transformation through technologies such as automation, the internet of things (IoT), and cloud computing, increases the chances of data leaks and security breaches.
They do that by increasing the attack surface of businesses, by enabling higher levels of connectivity. So how do you safeguard your business against security threats, during and after digitization?
Read on to discover the risks involved, and how to minimize them in digital transformation.
In the past, digital security and digital transformation were viewed as separate and independent processes. However, that has now changed and we recommend that you implement them concurrently.
When implementing your digital transformation, you must also deploy the security component part of your network, to protect it. Through an integrated security solution, you can monitor the entire network continuously, from the end-point devices to those that are cloud-based.
You can leverage machine learning and AI to automate the basic security processes such as identity checks, to monitor network communication in real-time.
That will allow you to have visibility throughout the network, from a single point, and get alerts of security breaches from a single interface.
You should go for a digital solution that allows you to scale it depending on your business needs. That allows you to have continuity in the way you secure and digitize all your business operations.
A scalable digital solution will have components such as endpoint security, multi-cloud security, application security, access management and control, and other similar enterprise solutions.
With such a solution, you will be able to onboard decision-makers from all departments, and share critical information in real-time. That can go a long way in keeping your digital network and business operations secure at all times.
These attacks can easily avoid detection by traditional security solutions, by changing and adapting to well-known monitoring techniques. These threats have become more common, and up to 85% of businesses report them as being a “somehow” a challenge, or an “extremely big” challenge.
The best way to deal with polymorphic attacks is to incorporate security solutions that can monitor and analyze your traffic in real-time. Such security solutions keep a cloud-based database, which is updated in real-time.
These cloud-based security solutions can block suspicious traffic from the network instantly, and send a notification to network administrators about them. For you, that means you only get to deal with well-known traffic, which poses minimal or no risk to your business operations.
DevOps can make it easy for you to roll out digital transformation continuously, without interrupting your core operations. However, being able to update your digital systems in real-time, also makes it easy for new security vulnerabilities to go undetected.
Therefore, DevOps are another reason to integrate security solutions into your digital solution. They can proactively monitor your network traffic, and stop security threats from wreaking havoc on your business’s digital systems.
If you have legacy digital products in your business network, these can pose a security threat because they may not offer visibility into their traffic. Such legacy systems must be placed behind a firewall to monitor any traffic they handle.
That is the best way to quickly identify suspicious traffic or activities coming or directed at them, and stop it immediately.
Cyberattacks have consistently been on the rise, even when there are sophisticated security solutions in place. In response, regulatory bodies have come up with strict guidelines and rules on how to handle consumer data, and personally identifiable information (PII), within their jurisdictions.
In order to meet such guidelines and regulations, you have to use best and certified industry products for data management. You also need to hire staff to reduce provide acceptable levels of risk management.
Overall, you can do the following to protect data even in case of a cyber attack on your business systems:
Create unified systems architecture by integrating all systems that collect and store data from your customers.
You should share any threat intelligence across your organization, as soon as you identify it. Moreover, you should advise users on how they should treat security threats if they spot them.
You should take steps to ensure the safeguards you have put in place are working, in all departments of your business or organization.
You should automate any repetitive security checks and procedures. That will allow you to monitor and protect all systems 24/7, using the same security standards.
While the above measures do not guarantee that you will not suffer a cyber attack, they can help you to minimize security and compliance problems. And most importantly, you can use them to minimize data leaks in case of an attack.
You have to research your vendor’s policy on disclosures and vulnerability management. Not all Internet of Things (IoT) device vendors adhere to the latest industry standards on security when manufacturing their devices.
If there is nothing in their policy that states which industry standards they adhere to, then chances are they have not tested their devices for any vulnerabilities.
During your digital transformation, you may choose to use SaaS to lower your initial investment in the digitization process. However, that can expose your business to supply chain risks, because of the continuous sharing of data with such platforms.
Investing in enterprise security solutions that offer supply chain data protection, can help you to protect data in your possession when accessing SaaS platforms. Moreover, you should request your SaaS provider to clarify any steps they have taken, to protect any of your data that may be on their servers.
Most SaaS services store some of the data in their system process, in order to analyze it and improve service delivery. If they do not have any enterprise security solutions from their end to protect your data, then you should consider changing to a different SaaS.
It is also important to determine if they are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The latest GDPR requires that any third party handling your customers’ data, has to adhere to data protection and security standards.
It is, therefore, your responsibility to ensure you do business with compliant businesses only.
You can achieve a lot in terms of handling security and privacy issues during digital transformation, by adhering to industry standards such as EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Moreover, by incorporating security and data protection measures in your digital transformation process, you can avoid the costly process of fixing a compromised digital system.
Overall, you must ensure you take a holistic approach when you invest in digital transformation and security of your data.
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ByteScout Team of Writers
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