Widespread Digitalization Puts Increasing Demands on Risk and Compliance Programs
The scope of risks to be managed is increasing. Especially over the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have experienced a significant push to strengthen their risk management programs. As organizations adopt new technologies, whether it be cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), social media, a new operating model, or Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), speeding up digital transformation is top of mind for business executives and teams alike.
However, increased speed leads to increased risk and creates the need for cyber and IT compliance and risk management teams to speed up their operations. Thus, these programs are challenged to perform their own digital transformation in cyber and IT risk and compliance.
The old way of managing risk and compliance in silos is not enough to fill this need. From risk assessments to control remediation, the methodology of legacy GRC has its place, especially for large and complex organizations. Still, these systems are not candidates to provide the proactive, real-time functionality that can transform cyber risk programs in the wake of digitalization.
This finding is not surprising, as GRC has been rooted in manual processes and qualitative analysis and has left risk and compliance teams playing “catch-up” from the beginning. Therefore, there must be another way to embrace digital transformation in risk and compliance - and there is: enter Cyber Risk Transformation via augmenting the existing GRC stack.
Enterprises are Embracing Cyber Risk Transformation Initiatives
A Cyber Risk Transformation initiative is one where alongside often massive digital transformation efforts, an enterprise realizes that the business must embrace digital transformation in risk and compliance as well. In response, these enterprises often seek innovative technologies to augment their existing tech stacks, focusing on risk management. In turn, these new technologies allow them to optimize for tangible cost investment and savings while also staying ahead of even the most unprecedented risks that may come due to or alongside digital transformation initiatives elsewhere.
These initiatives benefit internal audit, the risk function, IT compliance, and CISO groups by reducing costs, improving customer experiences and trust, and improving efficiency through targeted automation use cases.
The speed of risk assessment is dynamic and proactive, as opposed to reactive, and advanced analytics balanced with the right amount of qualitative storytelling allow for real-time decision-making that matches the speed of business. The cost savings are, for large organizations, often in the millions per year and let the cyber and IT risk teams enjoy the spotlight while also shining a light on the innovation and digital transformation teams’ work.
See below results from a recent Gartner survey showing organizations’ top investment priorities in light of digital transformation. In the blue boxes - Cybersecurity/Infosec, systems transformation, AI/ML, automation, and tech stack integration are all listed as one of the top investment priorities - all common elements of a cyber risk transformation initiative.
CyberStrong is the critical driver for these initiatives; as the only solution that can deliver on real-time continuous assessment backed by patented AI and Machine Learning. Learn more about how CyberStrong is driving Cyber Risk Transformations and saving enterprise organizations millions of dollars per year through digital transformation in risk and compliance.
Are You Ready for a Cyber Risk Transformation Initiative?
As these new digital technologies are available, risk and compliance teams must take advantage. Organizations of all industries, from financial services to pharmaceuticals, are embracing digital transformation in risk and compliance and spearheading Cyber Risk Transformation initiatives. These organizations often struggle to get value out of multiple GRC platforms or leverage spreadsheets to complete assessments, weighing their teams down with manual effort and missing opportunities for internal innovation. They desire a highly optimized and dynamic level of maturity across cyber and IT risk and compliance functions.
Attributes of a program that has embraced Cyber Risk Transformation include:
- Truly continuous risk and compliance assessment - when the data changes, the assessment changes
- Flourishing risk-aware and cyber-aware culture
- Risk is fully integrated with strategic decision-making processes
- IT Governance is driven by management
- Board-level visibility, understanding, and collaboration
- Meeting compliance is the ground floor from which to improve
- Cost optimization results in millions of dollars saved per year
- Human capital is repurposed from manual risk management processes to real-time risk management driven by data
Ultimately, organizations that embrace cyber risk transformation during digital transformation dynamically manage risks and increase program maturity. They continuously prioritize and refine their programs, adding more automation over time across compliance, risk, audit, governance, and CISO groups. They track tangible, measured impacts and Return on Security Investment (ROSI) while reporting to management with a narrative grounded in both qualitative and quantitative data.
The result? Optimized human capital investment and performance, automation that delivers cost savings, and a strong foundation allow businesses to take the risks that matter most.
Learn more about Cyber Risk Transformation and how you can begin the process in our webinar: Transforming Cyber Risk During Digital Transformation.
