Schaumburg, Ill. (Sept. 15, 2022) — As enterprises worldwide compete in the race for digital transformation, the State of Digital Trust 2022 survey report from ISACA a shows significant gaps between what enterprises are doing now and what they should do to establish leadership and earn customer trust in the future digital ecosystem.
The State of Digital Trust 2022 report features insights from 2,755 business and information technology professionals from around the world. ISACA defines digital trust as the confidence in the integrity of relationships, interactions and transactions among providers and consumers within an associated digital ecosystem. It is a driving factor in consumer decisions and enterprise resilience in a digital-dominated environment.
While nearly all respondents (98 percent) say that digital trust is important and 63 percent said that digital trust is relevant to their jobs, only 12 percent of their organizations have a dedicated staff role for digital trust.
Looking to the future, four out of five respondents (82 percent) say digital trust will be even more important in five years than it is today, yet only 29 percent offer digital trust training to staff.
“Digital trust is the bedrock of business relationships, and is critical for strategic digital transformation,” said David Samuelson, chief executive officer, ISACA. “Innovation, market leadership and financial performance rely heavily on trust that must be earned every day.”
Just one breach of digital trust can cause devastating reputational, regulatory and financial repercussions. Yet only 66 percent say their organization currently prioritizes digital trust at a sufficient level.
Survey respondents are aware of the consequences and say that organizations with low levels of digital trust experience: reputation decline (62 percent), more privacy breaches (60 percent), more cybersecurity incidents (59 percent), lost customers (56 percent), less reliable data for decision-making (53 percent) a negative impact on revenue (43 percent) and a slower ability to innovate (36 percent).
Even in an era in which enterprises heavily prioritize metrics and data analytics, only 23 percent say their organization measures the maturity of its digital trust practices. Those that measure digital trust have two areas in common—their board of directors has prioritized digital trust and they use a digital trust framework.
Moving past obstacles
According to the ISACA survey, the most significant obstacles to digital trust are: lack of skills and training (53 percent), lack of alignment with enterprise goals (44 percent), lack of leadership buy-in (42 percent), lack of budget (41 percent) and lack of technological resources (40 percent).
“Digital trust is a currency that must be backed by a robust validation process,” said Matt Chiodi, chief trust officer for Cerby and a member of ISACA’s Digital Trust Advisory Council. “Trust must be earned, which means that in everything an organization does, the end goal must be answering the question, ‘What can we do today to better earn the trust of our customers?’ Those organizations that continually ask this question and make executing on the answers a priority will win in the future – win in market share, profitability and engagement with employees and customers.”
Benefits of digital trust
Enterprises experience a range of key benefits when they prioritize digital trust in their strategic planning. According to respondents, high levels of digital trust lead to:
Growth opportunities
Even with global efforts such as the Digital Trust Initiative from the World Economic Forum, only 29 percent of respondents were extremely or very familiar with the term “digital trust.” This underscores the importance of a consistent drumbeat about digital trust and its growing importance on the enterprise landscape.
An emphasis on digital trust also presents major opportunities for career growth, as 82 percent say digital trust will be much more important in their organization and 28 percent say their organization will likely have a senior staff role dedicated to digital trust in five years.
Respondents said the top three components of digital trust are security, data integrity and privacy, but only half of respondents agree that there is sufficient collaboration among professionals in these and other digital trust fields.
The top three roles for strengthening digital trust are IT strategy/governance (84 percent), security (80 percent) and information technology (74 percent). Many organizations are still in early stages of digital transformation, so this is an excellent opportunity for professionals to step up, gain knowledge and lead a multi-disciplinary team.
Tools for the digital future
According to 76 percent of respondents, digital trust is very important to digital transformation.
Respondents also want tools to help with transformation—55 percent say that having a digital trust framework would be extremely or very important to their organization.
To help enterprises grow their digital trust capabilities, ISACA is releasing the Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework (DTEF) in the fourth quarter of 2022. DTEF is a business framework designed for the entire enterprise and focuses on providing critical factors for organizational success by fostering trusted, meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships, interactions and transactions. Members of ISACA can get a preview of the framework before its release in a free webinar a on 22 September.
Learn More
For resources on digital trust, including an introductory digital trust course and complimentary digital trust guides, visit www.isaca.org/digital-trust. The State of Digital Trust report is available as a free download at www.isaca.org/state-of-digital-trust.
ISACA® (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its more than 165,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. Through its foundation One In Tech, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for underresourced and underrepresented populations.
