Cybersecurity has become vastly more complicated in recent years. The days when antivirus software and a network firewall were enough to get the job done are behind us. In the past, many IT professionals felt that defending the perimeter really well would go a long way toward keeping digital assets safe. But in today’s IT environment, such a perimeter does not exist.

With the rise of cloud computing, DevOps, the IoT and employees accessing systems with an array of devices from all over the world, the network “perimeter” has become difficult to define. In response, enterprises are shifting their attention toward authentication, moving away from traditional perimeter security methods in favor of strong identity-focused technology like public key infrastructure (PKI), most often in the form of digital certificates.

2021 was another memorable year. Organizations that built remote processes in response to the pandemic have spent the past year optimising and strengthening their systems to ensure a positive and secure customer experience.

However, with identity theft, payment fraud, phishing, and other financial crimes at an all-time high, the work of digital security is never done. In an era of ever-present digital threats that can undermine and erode stakeholder trust, organizations should invest to earn “digital trust,” that is, protect their data and information from fraud and bad actors to safeguard their relationships, reputation, and revenue. This task could be more difficult than ever before as technology and the threats to digital trust it enables continue to evolve.

The stakes are high, and any misstep can impact customer loyalty, financial performance, brand equity, and ultimately undermine an organization’s ability to build and maintain trust. Surveys suggest that 81% of consumers lose trust in a brand after a breach, while 25% completely stop interacting with it. The stakes became even higher as the pandemic accelerated digital work infrastructures and drove spending on emerging tech security strategies and solutions.

It’s important to note that addressing digital trust should include an end-to-end interdisciplinary approach across people, process, governance, and regulation, with technology being a key enabler. In this study, we focus on advanced technology enablers that organizations can explore, over and beyond existing cyber measures, to enhance digital trust.

Chief security officers should play a key role in building trust with customers, and that translates to better customer acquisition, greater customer loyalty, and more revenue.

Digital trust is the measure of consumer, partner and employee confidence in an organization’s ability to protect and secure data and the privacy of individuals. As data breaches become bigger and more common, digital trust can be a valuable commodity for companies that earn it, and it is starting to change the way management looks at security.

How to build trust with customers

Building trust is no simple task. As well as doing the normal security tasks of implementing the right technologies and processes to ensure good security posture, organizations need to communicate.

To help build trust, he says organizations need to be upfront and transparent with their customers. They should clearly explain what they are doing with data and why, be clear what data is being collected and what it will be used for, and explain what security steps and processes are in place to ensure it remains secure.

For example, using multifactor authentication (MFA) is good security practice, but communicating why a customer is being asked to provide extra authentication during a transaction or process helps build that trust. “It’s important that a company demonstrates to their customers why they’re putting extra layers of security; say ‘we’re doing this because’ as opposed to ‘we’re doing this’.”

References:
(1) Deloitte
(2) security Solution
(3) Solution Review

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