Exploring The Role of Cyber Resilience in Digital Transformation Efforts

Cyber resilience is crucial to business continuity amid a cyber incident, as it ensures that systems can recover quickly. As such, it is no surprise that cyber resilience would be top-of-mind for organizations undergoing a digital transformation.  

In Accenture’s new “State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2023” report, researchers exemplified the benefits of cyber resilience by identifying a group of companies that it calls “cyber transformers.”

Cyber transformers, according to Accenture, “strike a balance between excelling at cyber resilience and aligning with the business strategy to achieve better business outcomes.”

Accenture surveyed 3,000 security and business executives from large organizations and gave the designation of “cyber transformer” to 30 percent of them. The researchers also found that organizations that closely align their cybersecurity programs to their business objectives are 18 percent more likely to reach their target revenue and 26 percent more likely to lower the cost of cybersecurity breaches.

Essentially, the results show that successful digital transformation efforts can only be

“The accelerated adoption of digital technologies like generative AI—combined with complex regulations, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties—is testing organizations’ approach to managing cyber risk,” said Palo Dal Cin, global lead of Accenture Security.

“In this rapidly changing environment, business leaders need to embed cybersecurity into the fabric of their digital core transformation efforts to become business resilient. This is one of the key differentiating traits of cyber transformers, who demonstrate that they are better equipped to drive successful business outcomes.”

In addition to demonstrating their ability to drive business outcomes, Accenture characterized cyber transformers as companies that excel at integrating cybersecurity and risk management frameworks, take action to include supply chain partners in their incident response plans, and rely on automation to alleviate cyber talent shortages.

Cyber transformers are also more likely to leverage managed service providers to assist in cybersecurity operations. Many organizations can learn from these cyber transformers, Accenture suggested. Of the total survey population, Accenture found that 18 percent of respondents still deploy security controls after finalizing a transformation effort.

“The next wave of business transformation will morph from managing isolated digital capabilities to creating the foundations of a shared reality,” the report stated. “It will converge the physical lives we’ve been leading with the digital ones we’ve been rapidly expanding. In such an environment, organizations should embed cybersecurity each step of the way to better manage these high stakes.”

Accenture recommended that organizations take the following three actions to increase their chances of being satisfied with the level of cybersecurity incorporated into their digital transformation efforts:

1. Require cybersecurity controls before all new solutions are deployed
2. Apply cybersecurity incrementally as each digital transformation milestone is achieved
3. Assign a cybersecurity representative to the core transformation team and a point person to orchestrate cybersecurity across all transformation initiatives

These actions can help organizations get more out of the digital transformation process and ensure that cyber resilience is a cornerstone of these efforts.