From Breach to Resilience: How a System of Work Reduces Cyber Risk
Cyber incidents are no longer rare events; they are a persistent reality for every organisation. Despite billions invested in cybersecurity, breaches continue to rise. The reason is simple: businesses are more reliant than ever on software – and as businesses grow, so does the bulk of software they rely on. As data pools grow and businesses digitise more knowledge, the number of potential weak spots grows with it. At worst, this is nothing less than an open invitation to malicious actors.
The problem is amplified by the trend towards monolithic ERP and CRM’S that are heavily integrated into all parts of an organisations technology stack. Aside from the vendor lock in and cost concerns, this also presents a major cybersecurity risk with all organisational data held in a single interconnected ecosystem. The consequences of a breach have become catastrophic.
In this context, resilience is not about building higher walls, but by denying attackers their hiding-places, escalation paths and potential to cause collateral damage. That is the promise of a System of Work.
From a cybersecurity perspective, it is far more secure to operate in a modular software environment. In this model, the organisation maintains a multitude of specialised software systems that have a limited and specific remit, holding data and performing tasks in only one area. The System of Work works with an organisation’s existing systems, enabling them to maintain the operational and security benefits of the modular approach, while still providing staff and executives with a single source of non-sensitive organisational knowledge. Attackers are given no opportunity to capitalise on system transformation. Methods and processes are more internally accessible, but sensitive data is still secure.
Compartmentalised Data
Adopting a System of Work to manage a modular software model enhances cybersecurity by providing defence in depth. As data is dispersed amongst multiple systems, a breach in one will not affect the others, the compartment may be compromised, but the ship won’t sink. Furthermore, this allows for more granular permissions. Systems can each have their own permissions and protections, ensuring that access to one will not provide undue access to all others. Because of all this, breaches can be dealt with in a contained manner without broader disruption.
This approach gives other security benefits. An important component of cybersecurity is maintaining system resilience, which is typically done through frequent patching and updating. A modular software model, managed by a System of Work, allows for far more frequent patching through the ability to compartmentalise, individual systems can be rapidly patched without affecting the broader digital ecosystem, ensuring all systems can be continuously improved to maintain best performance and security.
The pain of monolithic system transformation, aside from the disruption to core business, presents a major cybersecurity risk. Mass data migration risks not only compromising data integrity in transit, but exposing sensitive data to interception through potentially unsecure migration channels, costing hundreds of millions. The ability of a System of Work to maintain modular systems prevents organisations from ever needing to take this risk on, as data is kept safe and intact in its home system. Furthermore, this also allows organisations to maintain and develop backups and system redundancies, providing a greater degree of data resilience than could ever exist in a single system.
Shadow IT
One of the biggest cybersecurity blind spots in modern business is shadow IT. Recent analysis indicates that nearly half of all cyber-attacks originate from unauthorised or unmanaged systems operating outside formal IT oversight. The risk is further amplified by the significant proportion of organisations that still fail to incorporate shadow IT into their security architecture, leaving critical blind spots in their threat detection and response capabilities.
By offering a central, secure environment for access to authorised systems, the System of Work provides the key to unmasking shadow IT. This exposes all hidden vulnerabilities, shrinks the digital attack surface and brings all activity back under secure governance.
In the current environment, large organisations are increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attack due to their increasing reliance on software, the trend towards monolithic systems and the prevalence of shadow IT. With its unique ability to provide total organisational oversight without invading operational systems or compromising sensitive data, a System of Work enables businesses to work efficiently within a more secure modular software model and provides a platform to expose vulnerable shadow IT.