Johannesburg, 08 Feb 2018
No risk means no reward. Nobody wins from playing it safe: for every step the business takes forward, it also unearths new uncertainties. Risk and strategy are two sides of the same coin - the company that actualises its risk is empowering its strategy.
Little displays this relationship more acutely than the leveraging of digital technologies. Even at the most basic level - printers, e-mails, the humble spreadsheet - there is an associated risk around security. Digital technologies have enabled companies to reach far beyond their traditional walls. But cyber security has arrived in tandem, creating opaque and wide-reaching risks that most business leaders don't know how to approach.
Risks of the digital landscape
Not surprisingly, this was a key topic for attendees at the recent Risk Frontiers - East Africa Conference, held in Kenya's capital Nairobi. Here, numerous experts expressed their views on the matter as part of a panel discussion.
2017 was notable for a new level of digital maturity and appreciation for modern business technologies. Companies finally grasp what the big deal is. But they have also realised they cannot continue to downplay the risks involved.
"Technology was a good thing, but now it is becoming a bad thing," said Azeez Adenle, Risk Manager of the Year. "You stand the risk of being exposed. The challenge in Nigeria is that attacks are happening, but 70% of them are estimated to go unnoticed."
This attitude is not uncommon, particularly in countries experiencing significant Internet growth. Yet despite more articulation of cyber risk, at the attitude's root remains an underappreciation of progress' uncertainties. While executives are very bullish about the prospects of digital transformation and positive disruption of markets, the same reflection is not given to cyber risk. It's still being passed to the technologists, said Elina Massite, Group Forensic Investigator at Liberty East Africa:
"No one has taken ownership of cyber risks. When there is a data breach and reputational damage results, is IT going to pay for that? No, it is not."
Embrace risk, don't avoid it
Historical technology norms carved a comfortable divide between a company and the people who implement the technologies it relies on. This has changed significantly, as is obvious by the eagerness among the C-suite to adopt transformational technologies. Yet those same business leaders don't realise they are trying to have their cake and eat it. You cannot expect to grab technology by the horns and not worry about its cyber security kicks.
"Business needs to be to be aware of the changing framework and surrounding landscape," said Riaan Bekker, Salesforce and Riskonnect Solutions Manager at thryve, reminding attendees why we are attracted to technology in the first place:
"Technology is also an opportunity. It gives a chance to smaller business and entrepreneurs to come to market."
The right approach, he concluded, is to ask how technology can help companies respond to challenges and opportunities by creating one source of truth. Using modern technology to simplify risk management is a good example. It boosts the ability of leaders to determine their risk exposure, as well as consolidates resources in the company in order to adjust strategy more effectively.
Fewer and fewer business leaders are wilfully ignoring the risks associated with technology. Ditto for leaders who believe they can simply avoid technology. But that's only a realisation, not the answer. Panellists agreed that the way forward is to become more digitally mature.
This requires accountability for security from the board level down, driving policies and procedures that the business can rely on to be safer. Such policies must be easily audited and frequently scrutinised. This is possible when companies reduce information silos and bottlenecks, utilising unifying cloud platforms to build a real-time single truth everyone can rely on.
Modern digital platforms are quick to deploy, easy to scale, intuitive to adopt and incredibly powerful at herding disparate data sets together to create a single view the entire company can use. Bekker cited this, noting that often thryve's solutions start as a mere proof of concept, but quickly grows into a business tool as the company grasps its potency.
Executives worrying about customer loyalty is a good ambition. It's just that many don't realise the digital foundation for a responsive, engaged and proactive company is also the foundation for good security. Consolidating risk data through technology is the start of both. In one swoop risk becomes clear and strategy becomes proactive.
So don't fear technology. It's your greatest ally in tackling cyber risk.
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