It’s easier to lose trust than to gain it. Companies large and small are learning that trust, digital trust, is vital to success today in an environment of expanding digital infrastructure and increased reliance on technology to support a distributed workforce.
Digital trust refers to “the confidence users have in the ability of people, technology and processes to create a secure digital world”. Companies earn digital trust by showing their users they can provide key pillars of this trust including the privacy, security and reliability of their applications or devices.
As digital transformation across industries continues, fueling a growing wave of cyberthreats and headline-making data breaches, digital trust has risen to a strategic priority in enterprises across the globe.
According to a 2023 ISACA State of Digital Trust survey of more than 8,000 digital trust professionals, 76% of respondents said digital trust is important to digital transformation and 81% agreed that demonstrating a commitment to digital trust will ultimately make organizations more successful.
Commenting on the survey, Rolf von Roessing, ISACA Evangelist, said: “Cyberattacks are on the rise and customers increasingly recognize their sophisticated nature. They’ll therefore expect businesses to take the necessary steps to protect and secure their personal data. Those who adopt a company-wide strategy to build digital trust will establish themselves as a credible authority among customer bases and sustainably reap the long-term rewards.”
In today’s digital-first economy, organizations can’t earn digital trust without developing a strong security posture designed to safeguard data and maintain compliance with evolving data privacy and industry regulations.
To strengthen their security posture, enterprises are looking to partner with technology providers that protect data, reduce compliance risk, prevent unauthorized access to networks and systems and provide reliable and consistent services. Technology partners that don’t embed digital trust attributes like this in their solutions run the risk of losing business. Data from McKinsey shows that more than half of business buyers will stop doing business with organizations that don’t protect data.
As digital trust increasingly becomes a business enabler, enterprises need the right tools for securely advancing digital transformation and supporting a distributed workforce.
A great example of one of these technologies is NetSfere. A digital trust-enabling mobile messaging platform with security and compliance baked in, NetSfere is designed to create a secure, frictionless environment for business communication and collaboration that reduces the cyberattack surface and ensures regulatory compliance.
Organizations that don’t adopt digital trust enabling technologies like this run the risk of reputational damage, lawsuits, regulatory fines, and loss of consumer trust – all of which can erode the bottom line. By contrast, enterprises that are best positioned to build digital trust are more likely than others to see annual growth rates of at least 10% on their top and bottom lines, according to McKinsey.
With the right technology partners and solutions, organizations can build and sustain digital trust, reaping the benefits of fewer privacy breaches and cybersecurity incidents, stronger customer loyalty and higher revenue.