- Cybersecurity is one of the factors responsible for ensuring that digital transformation processes are carried out properly and with satisfactory results.
Cybersecurity and digital transformation are closely related, as we live in a world where digital development goes hand in hand with the advancement of new technologies to improve efficiency, competitiveness and the quality of products and services.
For this reason, cybersecurity is essential to guarantee not only security but also confidentiality in digital environments. Before looking at how these two concepts interact, let’s remember what each of them consists of.
Digital transformation: what it is
Digital transformation—which, although similar, is not the same as digitisation—is the integration of technology into all areas and processes of a company, substantially changing how companies operate and interact with customers.
Unlike the simple process of converting physical assets into digital ones, as digitisation implies, digital transformation involves both structural and cultural change.
A digital transformation brings a number of advantages, such as improved operational efficiency, decision-making, customer experience, new business opportunities and greater flexibility and agility.
What is cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity can be defined as the area of technology dedicated to combating threats to organisations: tools and strategies to protect computer systems with the aim of preventing and repelling malicious cyber attacks.
Protecting resources on both personal devices and in the cloud is critical in the face of increasing cyber attacks.
Relationship between digital transformation and cybersecurity
Looking at what each of these concepts consists of, we can classify the relationship between them as close and of great importance.
We could even consider cybersecurity to be a fundamental part of digital transformation, since without the guarantee that it provides in areas such as data protection, technological infrastructures and confidential information, digital transformation could not be successful.
Although it may seem excessive, it could even be said that digital transformation would not be viable without cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity must be present in all phases and processes of digital transformation to minimise the risk of attacks, although it serves other purposes as well.
Similarly, cybersecurity also has a strategic aspect thanks to a number of advantages such as boosting productivity, improving image and minimising hypothetical economic losses.
However, this relationship is not without its challenges.
Challenges in this relationship
An inherent issue with cybersecurity, whether linked to digital transformation or not, is that it is constantly evolving.
This particularity of not being static means that technologies, threats and tools are constantly evolving, so prevention must be constant and in a permanent process of study and evaluation.
This constant updating also has a derivative in the form of economic investment to keep cybersecurity systems up to date, both from a purely technological perspective and also from a human perspective in concepts such as training, etc.
In summary, we could conclude that it is very difficult to imagine a successful digital transformation without the support of cybersecurity when it comes to protecting the processes, infrastructure and data linked to this process.
