Cybersecurity as a Competitive Lever: Enabling Vigilance and Resilience

Developing a cybersecurity and data privacy strategy requires the ability to peer around corners to anticipate and prepare for threats and vulnerabilities that could hinder you from achieving organizational goals and objectives. Digital transformation, global crises and evolving threats trigger rapid and massive changes in the cybersecurity and data privacy landscapes. These seismic shifts are occurring on four major fronts:

Workforce and workplace: Widespread adoption of remote or hybrid work has created a virtual playground for cybercriminals—with a larger attack surface to exploit employees to gain access to networks, servers and software applications.

Threats and vulnerabilities: Organizations must vigorously monitor, learn from and prepare for cyberattacks such as ransomware that are increasingly clever, ruthless and costly at an unprecedented scale.

Regulatory compliance: New data privacy regulations such as the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) call for more stringent requirements, and international mandates such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) continue to apply greater scrutiny for compliance.

Cybersecurity technology and training: Businesses must ensure proper safeguards and controls are integrated with their software applications and networks, while educating employees on how to defend against sophisticated attacks such as phishing.

Meeting the Demands of an Evolving Data Privacy Landscape

Global and domestic privacy laws have increased and deepened in scope in recent years—and pose even greater complexities for organizations that have adopted flexible remote work arrangements. These mandates often go beyond data privacy to require inspection of cybersecurity programs on a periodic basis to ensure the security and protection of personal and/or sensitive information.

This has forced businesses to elevate and mature their data privacy programs and data handling practices to meet evolving regulatory requirements—as well as the demands of wary consumers.