Innovation – especially in IT – is what drives better efficiency and lowers operational costs. It’s innovation that gets credit for many technology changes that have improved business procedures in the last decade, but it’s also the crux of many organizational cybersecurity risks. While employees should be encouraged to find solutions that improve business processes, organizations should also consider and test for risk and possible threats that come with any new technology.

Finding Resilience with Technology Innovation

From artificial intelligence and machine learning to cloud support an X-as-a-Service (e.g. SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS), the last decade has seen tremendous advancements in technology that has made businesses more efficient, especially in the financial industry. Big data offers better analytics and data processing, online banking gives consumers easier access to account balances and bill payments, and machine learning has improved fraud detection.

FinTech is behind many of the new solutions involving better resiliency. Current FinTech corporations aren’t tethered to legacy systems that hold back better advances. AI-driven advancements are the most sought-after solutions due to its ability to make intelligent decisions in trading, fraud detection, and consumer financial activity.

Operational Risk with Innovation

While innovation can do extensive things with resilience and efficiency, it can also introduce cybersecurity risks and allow threats to penetrate standard protections. Blockchain is the perfect example of innovation that introduced new risks. In late 2018, the owner of a Canadian crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX, died suddenly with an estimated $150 million in cryptocurrency protected with a private key. The owner, Gerry Cotton, died with the private key hidden and currently lost where even his wife has no access. This prime example of innovation with increased risk is why corporations must test and explore solutions before relying on them for critical processes.

Complexity comes with much of innovative design. Technology interconnects multiple systems and with this convenience several risks are involved. Interconnected systems leave technology more open to insider threats and risks of bad actors. Several systems that rely on each other for convenience can also lead to critical downtime if just one of them fails. These issues and more should be a part of the testing and development phase, but corporations set strict deadlines and too often skip past important testing and quality assurance stages.

Ensuring Innovation Resilience While Avoiding Risk

Tight deadlines aren’t uncommon with innovation to meet consumer expectations, but any system should be stress tested, quality assurance reviewed, and penetration tested for cybersecurity risks. Risk management should be a priority to ensure that threats are considered, and the right methodologies are put into place to protect from current and potential future threats.

No system is ever 100% secure, but the right procedures in place before innovation is integrated into operational procedures greatly reduce the chance of compromise and data loss. These procedures can ensure efficiency remains while risk is reduced. Please contact our team of experts and we will assist you with proper risk management solution which will support corporate innovative procedures within your organization, ensuring they are secured.

Originally published by APVERA