This is part of a series highlighting key takeaways from our latest report Investing in Digital Transformation and Product Development. (<– Download the full report for free!)
Cybersecurity is now engrained in every part of product development and digital transformation initiatives, even the user experience. Users increasingly demand and expect information privacy and robust encryption methods. As our CEO Patrick Sheridan succinctly puts it in his article “Digital transformation is more than AI: you still need a customer-focused strategy,” “There are many reasons to prioritize cybersecurity, including the simplest one: your customers care.”
But it’s difficult for organizations to keep up with security, particularly as they’ve accrued debt by outpacing spending on other initiatives over security. Chasing growth at the cost of a strong security posture can have serious consequences in today’s age of sophisticated cyberattacks and a shortage of security talent.
As a result, cybersecurity has become a top challenge for many companies. In fact, according to our latest research report on Investing in Digital Transformation and Product Development, preventing security breaches is among the top two most commonly reported challenges to overall business success for 40% of organizations.
Cybersecurity challenges: what are the stakes?
There are several cybersecurity threats to consider, and the stakes are high. Cybersecurity threats can cause loss of critical and confidential information, service disruption, and leave your overall infrastructure vulnerable. Regulations such as GDPR have introduced a whole other level of reputational and financial risk. Not to mention how data leaks cause an erosion of consumer trust and can take a long time for brands to recover from (if ever), particularly in industries like finance.
This potential exposure and the myriad of security breaches that are possible in today’s ever-evolving threat landscape create significant barriers to success for organizations. On top of that, the global talent shortage makes it difficult to find capable security professionals to lead threat remediation efforts.
Preventing security breaches is a top challenge for 40% of organizations surveyed in our research report.
Prioritizing data security
Data security involves a wide array of specific skills — from information architecture to understanding regulatory requirements. These skills are hard to nurture and consolidate, especially in organizations new to digital transformation. That’s why nearly half (49%) of product development professionals report that it would be most helpful to outsource application security to a capable partner.
Product and platform development and data security are often siloed, creating inefficient workflows, restricting data insights, and making it more difficult to identify potential threats. Increasing security awareness and consideration throughout the entire product development process can help ensure an overall mindset that security is everyone’s concern. This will naturally break down walls between groups involved in the process and improve data security.
42% of organizations experienced improved data security as a result of their last digital product implementation/overhaul, according to new research.
Emergence of DevSecOps
DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) integrates security practices throughout the software development lifecycle with the goal of increasing the speed and quality of software delivery while reducing the risk of security vulnerabilities. Its emergence as one of the defining product development trends reiterates how organizations across industries are embracing security throughout the IT lifecycle.
According to GitLab’s DevSecOps survey, 57% of security team members said their organizations have either shifted security left (i.e., implemented security practices earlier in SDLC) or were planning to in 2023.
How organizations are taking action
A recent article by McKinsey stresses the importance of robust risk mitigation: “The key for decision makers will be to incorporate risk-based thinking into the wider business plan, and then to execute diligently to ensure all the bases are covered.”
The good news? Businesses recognize the potential consequences of a security breach and 59% of organizations surveyed will be investing to improve their cybersecurity posture in 2024. This is a significant jump from last year: Just 32% of participants from our 2023 research said they would be investing in improving cybersecurity posture.
Interested in more cybersecurity insights? Access the complete research report here on on the top digital transformation trends of 2024.
