There is a lot of risk out there: Privacy will soon be the law of the land and security threats abound. This is not simply a question of managing risk or minimizing financial loss; this is now a fundamental question of trust. Any decline in trust — real or perceived — is a direct threat to top-line performance. With cybersecurity a daily battle, managing trust in a GDPR-compliant world is a fight for your company’s future.

Privacy
GDPR must now be considered the new global privacy baseline. Although the actual pragmatic implementation is up in the air, we cannot understate the impact on customer acquisition, customer service, and CX. It places an exclamation point on shifting from an outbound game of scale to an individualized, permission-enabled operation, forcing you to reimagine prospect and customer engagement.

Incident response
Privacy and security breaches are not pretty. They can go public in unmanaged and volatile social networks and spill over well beyond the specific IP or financial damage. Speed, discipline, and calm are desperately needed as you work to understand and stop the breach and work to regain control of your brand to instill trust in a hyper-observant market.

Zero trust
Cybersecurity is more and more like an arms race. Improvements in detection, protection, and response are met with more diverse and effective attack tactics. There is no impermeable perimeter. It’s not a matter of if, but when, there will be an incident — you may have already been hacked but just don’t know it yet. The Zero Trust framework is the pragmatic model for today’s hostile reality that includes a mindset, operating model, and architecture tuned to the threat.

Managing trust
The currency of privacy and security is trust: an intangible, dynamic emotion that defines whether customers believe you will protect their interests and identity. Trust should be treated as a strategic asset of the firm and a baseline covenant with customers. Privacy and security are primary actors in affirming or eroding trust and, in a hostile, complex market, act as fundamental levers of financial performance and long-term market viability.