Fight Fire with Fire

9From Enforcer to Strategic Partner The Changing Role of Governance, Risk, and Compliance

BETH-ANNE BYGUM

 

Tucked in a window seat on a southwest airlines flight, I started my familiar weekend route between Phoenix and Burbank. Opening my phone, I continued reading The Pentagon's Brain¹ by Annie Jacobsen. Surprisingly, Jacobsen's account of the birth and evolution of DARPA echoes the issues we face today as CISOs. Too often, we find ourselves faced with combating compromises in solutions that were designed from a place of trust versus security by design.

This theme comes up again in the Netflix original documentary The Social Dilemma.² I realized that we will continue to face this persistent problem if our focus on user experience design continues to outweigh security by design. Maintaining the critical balance between user experience and end-to-end data security is a fundamental design requirement.

The current emphasis on digital transformation and user experience is nothing new. Digital experiences are important, but the capabilities must be developed with security at the core for the services to be resilient and sustainable, at the same time maintaining the trust granted by our users and customers. Without this fundamental principle, organizations cannot fulfill their duty to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of information, systems, and data. As leaders, we perpetuate the problem unless we use methodologies that enforce the ability to design and configure security ...