Digital Trust: Essential for enterprise business prosperity

Every day, 160 million emails are sent. Total e-commerce revenues exceed $100 billion each year worldwide. However, as e-commerce has grown, so have concerns about digital security since the consequences of a lack of digital trust are massive. Each year, corporate identity breaches cost businesses $20 billion while identity fraud results in a further $50 billion in losses. This does not include indirect losses to business since new secure business models must be developed to fight against corporate intellectual property theft.

Doing business requires trust
So what can companies do to defend themselves? According to a new report* by the Leading Edge Forum, the answer is to establish “digital trust”. For Paul Gustafson, director of the Leading Edge Forum, digital trust is an “entirely new approach to the development and management of IT security tools”. “Digital trust takes more than just adopting the latest security technologies. It requires companies to demonstrate that their technologies are trustworthy. Most of all, it requires transparency.”

For years, corporations have developed comprehensive risk management plans and spent millions of dollars using technology to protect their organizations and business transactions. Despite this, threats are increasing and major security breaches continue to wreak havoc on reputation and finances.

According to the report, information risk management and digital trust are two sides of the same coin. However, while the former is described as: “Defend what you have” and “Reduce the chance of ‘bad stuff’ happening”. The latter is defined as: “Increase the value of what you have” and “Improve the chance of ‘good stuff’ happening”.

Shaking hands with the digital enterprise
“In today’s world, security is essential for trust,” says Ron Knode, a leading security expert and primary contributor to the report. “Lack of trust can rapidly erode consumer, partner and shareholder confidence […]. Real security relies on the conscious, proactive development of trust, and those that establish it not only address risk effectively, they achieve business gain.”

The report refers to this form of trust as “digital trust” because it’s more than just a feeling of confidence. It involves communicating openly about how security functions work. It is about continually demonstrating trustworthiness and involving customers and business partners in the effort. Unlike the secrecy of risk management, digital trust requires transparency.

“Digital trust […] is like a virtual handshake,” says Knode. “This handshake helps establish trust and builds both confidence and relationship. These aspects create preferred providers who get repeat business and referrals. They’re also the most likely to retain your business in the wake of a security breach.”

“Adopting a digital trust strategy automatically gives you the benefits of the risk management approach,” says Knode. “It’s a case of the best defense being a good offence, and, while the full strategic benefits are yet to be seen, several of the companies described in the report are achieving return on investment. The payoff potential is definitely there.”

* Leading Edge Forum, Digital Trust:
Shaking Hands with the Digital Enterprise, vol. 1

Contact: Loïc de Kergommeaux

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Information about the LEF