Data underpins digital business models, the digital economy, the Internet of Things and the fundamental changes in the ways people interact and protecting data is crucial to securing new ways of doing business, says T-Systems South Africa information and communications security services portfolio manager Rory Young.

Data holds significant value for consumers and companies, hence, its value for cybercriminals, but the sheer pace and amount of data often makes it difficult to protect a business and customers.

“A digital business model must be designed with security and business intelligence tools in mind from the outset. “Security data helps to better protect corporate intellectual property and personal information for use in business intelligence tools, as well as providing additional input and insight,” asserts Young.

The key challenge, besides the amount and variety of data generated, managing it and maintaining suitable networks to carry it, is how to gain insight from the volumes of data to make one’s business more effective and efficient.

“Data is typically used to better understand customers’ experiences so that interactions between business and customers can be improved, and business models refined to ensure that the business remains relevant and responsive to customers,” notes Young.

Linking this flood of data directly to customer interactions or transactions enables business to develop new services and competitive advantage. This can also enable them to introduce so-called disruptive services or products to attract new customers. The flow of data is central to all new users and services, whether it is customer-facing or in-house services to support business processes.

New business models often require traditional value chains to be opened up to employees, third parties, partners and end customers, and providing secure access to sensitive data assets is crucial when it comes to accelerating the delivery of new services.

“It is not enough to implement new security systems for massive data streams. Companies must embed security within the culture of the organisation if they are to make their businesses more resilient and secure,” he emphasises.

“Users and clients remain the weakest links in the security chain, and education as well as incident response measures must be in place when a breach occurs to limit damage or data loss,” he explains.

Vulnerability assessments and risk profiling of a business can also inform what security investments must be made in order to target risk and drive it out of the business. High-profile, large or at-risk businesses will typically use behavioural analysis and threat intelligence sourced from the broader digital security industry in order to enhance detection and protection.

“Managed security services also provide companies with a means to actively monitor their environment and ward against threats without requiring them to manage increasing data volumes and risk by hiring more noncore security personnel.”

Security services are especially useful for companies operating mainly digitally where the required competence does not exist internally, and the use of such security services is growing.

T-Systems South Africa has a digital Security Operations Centre in Midrand, which compares favourably with the company’s other centres worldwide, as well as other professional digital security centres, he notes.

“While data volumes grow, and risks for businesses grow, T-Systems South Africa is positioning itself to play a key role in meeting clients’ demands to help them securely use and benefit from the new digital economy,” Young concludes.