Amber Hickman |
Organisations that closely align their cybersecurity programmes to business objectives are 18 per cent more likely to achieve target revenue growth and improve customer satisfaction, according to a new report from Accenture.
The State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2023 report is based on a survey of 3,000 security and business executive from large organisations across Europe, North America, South America and the Asia-Pacific region.
The report also states that on average, organisations with aligned goals and cybersecurity programmes are also 26 per cent more likely to lower the cost of breaches.
Accenture identified 30 per cent of the respondents to the survey as being from businesses that the firm identifies as ‘cyber transformers’, or organisations that have a balance between good cyber resilience and business strategy.
The four characteristics Accenture says define a cyber transformer are: excelling at integrating cybersecurity and risk management, leveraging cybersecurity-as-a-service solutions to enhance security operations, being more committed to protecting their ecosystem, and relying heavily on automation.
“In this rapidly changing environment, businesses leaders need to embed cybersecurity into the fabric of their digital core transformation efforts to become business resilient,” said Paolo Dal Cin, global lead of Accenture Security. “This is one of the key differentiating traits of cyber transformers, who demonstrate that they are better equipped to drive successful business outcomes.”
The report also states that digital transformations are nearly six times more likely to be effective if organisations embed three key cybersecurity actions into their strategy, compared to businesses that do not.
Accenture identified these three actions as requiring cybersecurity controls before all new business services and products are deployed, applying cybersecurity incrementally as each digital transformation milestone is achieved, and appointing a cybersecurity representative as part of the core transformation team. This representative must orchestrate cybersecurity across all transformation initiatives.
Read the State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2023 report on the Accenture website