As the world has become more hyperconnected and digital interactions between systems, devices and people become more complex and complicated, digital trust has become an increasingly discussed concept. In today’s permimeterless digital world, the significance of digital trust and the emphasis on creating a trusted environment is key.
Consumer confidence in cybersecurity, data privacy and responsible artificial intelligence (AI) is dependent on the actions of organizations, and developing digital trust is a key step in establishing this confidence and contributing to growth as an organization. Organizations must get better at communicating with their customers and other stakeholders, both collectively and individually, about data security and the trust-value relationship.
The speed in growth of technological advances does not provide enough time to keep up. The time to understand digital trust and educate the organization is now.
To implement digital trust in an organization, a few practical steps include:
- Creating awareness of the digital trust ecosystem
- Conducting periodic training for employees about best practices for protecting sensitive information and personally identifiable information data (PII)
- Creating policies and implementing the processes for the periodic disposal of sensitive data
- Implementing strong access controls
- Creating a comprehensive security plan with all stakeholders involved
- Encouraging the use of external assurance services for critical operations
- Ensuring that all critical technologies are periodically updated to address any security vulnerabilities that are discovered
- Encouraging a system of self-reporting security incidents
- Creating and implementing robust data governance policies
- Exercising due diligence on all third-party vendors and their data access
- Implementing best practices for data breaches
- Encouraging the use of automated tolls to manage cyberrisk
- Developing a culture of obtaining user consent before using PII
Once these steps are established, organizations with a strong vision and stability can create an audit plan for digital trust. Auditing can ensure that robust systems and procedures are in place and are verified through quantitative and qualitative audit techniques. A few practical steps to audit digital trust in an organization are:
- Periodic review and evaluation of policies and procedures to ensure no gaps with the latest industry trends
- Evaluation of the technologies used by the organization to avoid technology becoming obsolete and making the organization vulnerable
- Periodic review and testing of the incident response plan
- Periodic review of threat modeling and root cause analysis, especially related to cyberattacks and data breaches
Safeguarding digital trust
Although it appears that digital trust is the responsibility of the IT function, board members and top executives must also be informed and updated periodically on digital trust as any adverse effect will have a drastic impact on the overall business of the organization.
Digital trust is key, and although establishing and maintaining it might take a lot of effort, losing it can happen in an instant – and lead to problems that are not easily remedied. Organizations need to treasure and safeguard the digital trust bestowed upon them by their clients, employees and stakeholders in this fast-paced digital world. They must manage trust across the organization as a strategic necessity to sustain business.
Editor’s note: For further insights on this topic, read Gopikrishna Butaka’s recent Journal article, “Digital Trust and the Audit Function” , ISACA Journal, volume 2 2023.