Balancing Digital Transformation Goals with Risk Management

Digital transformation was already underway for many companies before COVID-19 in 2020, but a quick shift to remote work caused strategies to accelerate their plans. Once the initial scramble to connect remote teams was passed, companies needed to bolster secure connections.

As the switch to remote teams has transitioned to permanent remote or hybrid work environments, digital transformation continues to be a priority. But as the pandemic demonstrated, advancing technology often comes with unexpected risks. Malicious actors quickly identify vulnerabilities and gaps in remote settings and target them for an attack.

When your company evaluates your next advance in digital transformation, it's vital to ensure you have a clear risk management strategy. Awareness in the following areas can help you move forward with a clear understanding of risk:

Governance: Do you have a governance policy in place, and does it need updating to accommodate unfolding steps in your transformation process? An effective governance program begins with strategic buy-in from executives and distributes ownership and enforcement in your organization. Even if it is not running at full capacity, a governance program can help you mitigate risk.

Collaboration: In whatever step you take in your digital transformation strategy, do you have the right roles involved in the process? Making sure members from the impacted teams are involved in the process can help anticipate roadblocks and challenges and ensure what is beneficial to one team is not hindering another. They can also identify risks specific to their business unit.

Taxonomy: Part of risk management is knowing what you have. An accurate inventory of information and systems will be helpful to your organization as you progress through your transformation strategy. It is critical for risk but can also help with technology life-cycle management.

Permissions: Every user should be granted access to the least possible level of any resource they need for their jobs. Clear guidelines should be established so that policies are applied through automation rather than with manual processes.

ZTNA: Zero trust network access (ZTNA) is an approach that helps address risk management initiatives. It assumes every user and every device is a threat and puts measures in place to verify them, such as multi-factor authentication. Rather than being a single solution, it combines technologies in a coordinated approach toward cyber security.

Risk management is an integral part of any digital transformation strategy. Of course, you could pursue technology advancement blind. Still, the resulting exposure to your organization could be immeasurably damaging, erasing all the cost savings and productivity benefits expected from the investment.To learn more about balancing digital transformation with risk management, contact us at IT Broker.com. We can help you move forward in your strategy without compromising your business continuity.