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How the Future of Technology Lies Within Cyber Security

By Dr. Malek Ben Salem, R&D Principal - Security, Accenture Technology Labs, Lisa O’Connor,
managing director, Security R&D Lead, Accenture Technology Labs and Ryan LaSalle, global
managing director, Security Transformation Services, Accenture

Innovative enterprises are fundamentally changing the way they look at themselves. They are
connecting with other digital businesses, digital customers, and even digital things at the edge
of their networks.

In the Accenture Technology Vision 2015, we described how the digital transformation is
creating what we call the “We Economy.” The Internet of Things is driving new innovation and
new opportunities, bringing every object, consumer and activity into the digital realm. Leading
companies are making similar changes within their own enterprises by digitizing every
employee, process, product and service.
However, with companies now routinely dealing digitally with hundreds of business processes,
thousands of employees, and millions of consumers, cyber-security has become a a Board level
concern. Companies need to protect Internet of Things edge devices while assuring data
integrity to support decision-making. They need to make sure they can maintain security while
also absorbing, processing and generating insights from big, diverse data as they leverage
digital platforms and share data. With these insights, companies are creating personalized
experiences that engage customers while preserving the customer’s privacy and trust.

In connection with the Accenture Technology Vision 2015, we have identified five major themes
for enterprises seeking to set priorities for cyber-security in this new digital era:

1. Establishing Edge Autonomy. The Internet of Things (IoT) is connecting billions of
embedded sensors, smart machines, wearable devices and industrial equipment. This is
introducing the delivery of intelligent products and services through the digital
ecosystem.

To enable edge autonomy, companies should prioritize protecting these devices that sit
at the edge of networks and boost security for edge device infrastructure. They should
include system context in security planning, and manage edge intelligence using new
governance models.

2. Protecting Data Integrity. As the IoT proliferates, businesses will use data passed
between interconnected devices, applications and processes to determine customer and
device context, and then collaborate through platforms to provide the intelligent products
and services that customers demand.

This connected digital ecosystem, combined with edge computing and smart M2M
communications, will expand the ability to use data collected from IoT devices to drive
significantly faster decisions. To optimize decisions, businesses will require edge data
that is accurate, authentic and complete. This means considering key security strategies

20 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – August 2015 Edition
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