Is Zero Trust the Catalyst for a Successful Digital Transformation?

To address digital transformation challenges that result from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Here, Jordan Blake, BehavioSec’s VP of products, describes a few core components that digital transformation architects and their organizations must focus on to successfully secure digital transformation, zero trust, and customer experience.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic didn’t coin “digital transformation” – but it is certainly accelerating the progress of organizations pursuing it.

In fact, according to a recent poll, nearly four of five companies are undergoing a transformationOpens a new window . In doing so, they seek to improve employee efficiency, work organization, decision-making, and product/services development as cited by 76% of polled managers.

ZDNet also reports that the strong growth in work from home (WFH) adoption is driving greater investment into these initiatives. 47%Opens a new window of tech leaders planning to spend more on digital transformation year-over-year from 2020 due to the pandemic and approximately two-thirds focused on technologies that enable communications and collaboration between remote employees. 

To be clear, companies would still pursue this transition even without the widespread WFH arrangements, as digital transformation amounts to a “make or break” proposition for many businesses. For example, with startups disrupting markets by offering exclusively online shopping experiences instead of investing capital in physical stores, they quickly and cost-effectively push their competition out of business. And now as a result, even large, brick-and-mortar brands are developing immersive apps and online services that enhance and even redefine their consumer engagement to grow their customer base.

With this market-level transition, we’re seeing industries from diverse sectors breaking down into the “haves” and “have nots” for online experiences, with the latter facing prospects of market irrelevance and eventual extinction: 

• Nearly 50% of companies at a high maturity stage of digital transformation are reporting net revenue growthOpens a new window , compared to only 15% at the lowest stage. 
• Three in 10 at high maturity are seeing increased sales from new products and services – more than double that of those at low maturity. 
• 40% at high maturity are boosting customer lifetime value, while less than 25% at low maturity are doing the same.

But even with these strong incentives, it’s not surprising that many organizations struggle with the transition, with 37% of managers saying their company has fallen behind the competition in making a digital transformationOpens a new window . 

To address the challenges, corporate leadership is closely collaborating so that transformation initiatives align enterprise-wide across the business, IT, security, and other functions, often led by a newly designated job role to oversee it – the digital transformation architect. These executives serve as the hub for the C-suite, marketers, and developers, and can remove roadblocks by objectively adjudicating the age-old, tug-of-war battles between vested cybersecurity solutions, user experience, and line of business stakeholders by reminding them that both security and opportunity costs matter in business. 

Or in other words, these architects help avoid either main pitfall, securing something to the point it becomes too hard to use on a smartphone and the business fails or new apps and services are left vulnerable and get hacked, drain customer accounts and trust and the business fails.

Learn More: Beyond the Zero Trust Hype: Is VPN Responsible for the Big Switch?

To succeed, digital transformation architects and their organizations must focus on two critical, core components of secure digital transformation:

Zero Trust

Typically, the expansion of innovative tools and services increases attack surfaces that cybercriminals are quite eager to capitalize on. Two persistent threat vectors, for example, are login credential abuse, like passwords, and the theft or abuse of mobile devices. Traditionally, businesses only cared if someone had valid login credentials to make a payment or purchase something, but the underground, Internet-scale weaponization of breached credentials means checking passwords simply isn’t enough. Likewise, just because a user’s laptop, phone, or tablet has connected to a service before does not mean that the legitimate user is still holding the device, or that it hasn’t been infected by malicious software covertly planted on it, poised to make fraudulent transfers or purchases once the legitimate user logs-in.

Zero trust means assuming compromise and not conferring trust simply on legitimate accounts or devices, or turning a blind eye to activity once a legitimate user authenticates. Favored by respected authorities like NISTOpens a new window , the zero trust approach fights fraud and theft by continuously monitoring and examining behaviors, making it harder for attackers to succeed by simply stealing or cloning one item, like a password, device, or SIM cardOpens a new window .

To support a zero trust approach, digital transformation architects should put in place identity and access safeguards that align to the organization’s risk tolerance and policies, and continually monitor customer and user interaction with accounts, data, and services.

Learn More: Why Cybersecurity’s Latest Buzzword, Zero Trust Needs a Simple Approach in the Hybrid World 

Customer Experience 

Is it possible to offer more secure, mobile, and engaging experiences without alienating employees and shoppers? 

We can’t deny it’s a tricky balancing act. Relax authentication too much, architects and security decision-makers open the gates for a devastating breach. Yet with too many barriers to access, users are overwhelmed with friction, resulting in customer churn and/or reduced employee productivity and morale.

To achieve the right balance, Digital transformation architects must look beyond traditional (and often vulnerable) approaches such as passwords, tokens, CAPTCHAs, PIN codes, and “Where were you born?” questions to alternatives that offer better security and frictionless user experiences.

Behavioral biometrics is a newer technology capable of striking the right balance. It eliminates the tedious steps to provide “invisible” or “transparent” authentication. With solutions using behavioral biometrics technology, security teams automatically build user profiles based upon how individual users hold smartphones in their hands, type on keyboards, swipe touchscreens, and otherwise physically interact with apps and services using their devices. And because cybercriminals cannot impersonate this activity – no one interacts physically with technology in the same way – they cannot spoof legitimate users seeking access, or successfully steal their unique behavioral profiles to use on other devices and services.

There is a lot riding on successful transformation for today’s businesses, especially as the pandemic has forced a greater sense of urgency. With the stakes high, the role of the digital transformation architect is essential, requiring expert leadership to deliver protected, yet frictionless, user experiences. Once achieved, everyone benefits from continued investment in the transformation – except hackers.

Let us know if you liked this article or tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!