Rethinking IT Asset Lifecycle for Global Businesses

Most businesses automate for efficiency, but few systematically secure their new digital pathways. This oversight is a ticking risk. The interconnectedness of modern systems, combined with a focus on immediate ROI, often leads to an incomplete security integration plan. Data breaches aren't just IT failures; they're strategic liabilities that erode trust and inflict lasting financial damage. Our research shows a common pattern: automation projects are often scoped for function and speed, with security bolted on as an afterthought. A more effective approach integrates security at the design phase through what we call a 'Secure Automation Blueprint'. First, define the Data Interactivity Matrix: Which automated processes access which data types? Map classification (PII, financial, IP) and criticality. This informs access controls. Second, enforce Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) at a granular level. Automated agents should only have minimal access required for their task, with network access geofenced if appropriate. Third, implement Continuous Anomaly Detection. Automations exhibit predictable behavior; any deviation in data access or execution patterns should trigger immediate alerts or automated rollback. Fourth, establish a Human-in-the-Loop Audit Trail. All automated actions affecting sensitive data or critical systems must be logged, auditable, and subject to regular human review for exceptions, serving as a vital safety net. Security in automation isn't about slowing down; it's about building resilient, trustworthy systems that accelerate long-term growth without exposing your core assets. What's one often-overlooked security vulnerability you've identified and mitigated within your own automation initiatives? #BusinessAutomation #Cybersecurity

Day-6 Why These Are the Most Important Terms in the IT Sector 1. Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA): Cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated, and perimeter-based security is no longer sufficient. Zero Trust is a fundamental shift in how businesses secure access, ensuring strict identity verification at every interaction. It’s being adopted by enterprises and government bodies alike as a best practice. 2. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM): Enterprises are dealing with massive volumes of data and attacks that traditional security tools can’t catch. SIEM solutions provide real-time analysis, threat detection, and automated responses, making them indispensable for cybersecurity operations. 3. Data Sovereignty Compliance: With global data privacy laws like GDPR, HIPAA, and others, businesses must ensure that their data handling respects jurisdictional boundaries. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and loss of trust, making this a strategic priority. 4. Business Continuity Planning (BCP): Every organization faces unexpected disruptions — whether cyberattacks, natural disasters, or supply chain failures. A robust continuity plan ensures that operations, finances, and customer services remain uninterrupted, protecting long-term viability. 5. Identity and Access Management (IAM): As remote work, cloud services, and hybrid infrastructures become the norm, managing access rights efficiently and securely is critical. IAM frameworks ensure the right people have access to the right systems — and only those systems — reducing risk without slowing productivity. --These are not optional or trendy — they are essential pillars: They help businesses stay secure, stay compliant, and stay operational. They are key decision points for CTOs, CISOs, and enterprise architects. They address the challenges of modern IT: complexity, regulation, cyberthreats, and scalability. Parth Verma The Valuation School #Equity #Finance #IT

Zero Trust is not a product. It’s not even a “program.” It’s an enterprise architecture vision that forces us to rethink trust, risk, and every aspect of identity lifecycle. Organizations that set themselves up for success don’t just deploy new tools. They: • Anchor Zero Trust in enterprise priorities — business agility, resilience, and regulatory compliance - rather than treating it as a security silo. • Elevate IAM to its strategic role as the enterprise control plane, where identity, policy, and risk intelligence converge. • Build a policy fabric that ensures unified governance, aligning user context dynamically with the security needs of the asset. • Operate an adaptive risk engine that draws on enterprise intelligence - from various sensors, 3rd party integrations, and operational data lakes - to continuously calibrate trust decisions. • Accept that perfection doesn’t exist: exceptions and legacy systems must be managed, not ignored. The real challenge is not technology. It’s operationalizing Zero Trust without breaking the enterprise - balancing transformation with continuity. My belief: Zero Trust should be approached as a maturity journey that evolves with your enterprise, not a milestone with a finish line. For leaders, the question is not “How do we implement Zero Trust?” - it is “How do we lead our enterprise through the shift from perimeter-first to identity-first security paradigm?” Is it how your organization approaches Zero Trust? #ZeroTrust #CyberSecurity #EnterpriseArchitecture #IdentityAndAccessManagement  #IdentityFirst

Business leaders will hesitate to retire legacy because of the risks: - Potential data loss - Compliance issues - Security challenges - High costs But with the right data retention solution, modernization doesn’t have to be risky. Here’s what to look for: #Modernization #Innovation #TechDebt

𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗥𝗖 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 isn’t just a best practice, it’s the difference between paper compliance and 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. I have come across this many times and too often, organizations treat 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 (𝗚𝗥𝗖) as separate entente from 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴. The result? Requirements get documented, but not always embedded into operational controls. I feel by integrating GRC directly into engineering workflows, we shift from “check-the-box” compliance to 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀. Here is a real world example, By linking GRC risk registers and compliance obligations with engineering-led 𝗗𝗟𝗣 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝘀 allows us to: • Map sensitive data types (PII, IP, financials) to 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 • Enforce safeguards across SaaS, cloud, and endpoints • Reduce risks of data loss, insider misuse, and regulatory penalties • Provide executives with visibility into protection and risk posture The future of resilience is not GRC 𝘰𝘳 Engineering, it’s 𝗚𝗥𝗖 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴. What do you think, are most orgs still treating these as separate silos?

💡 Why DORA matters for Test Data Management. The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) has been in force across the EU since January, setting strict requirements for ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing and third-party oversight. DORA carries major implications for financial institutions, cloud providers and DevOps teams. To comply, firms must rigorously test their ICT systems against disruption. But this testing is only as strong as the test data behind it. Robust Test Data Management (TDM) ensures tests run on accurate, secure and well-managed data. Enabling organisations to validate critical business processes, simulate real-world scenarios and protect sensitive information, meeting both resilience and data privacy demands. 📊 Step towards Compliance. Strong TDM practices include data discovery and dictionary building, regular resilience testing, clear governance and monitoring and alignment with DORA standards. By embedding these practices, firms don’t just tick a compliance box, they build resilience, protect customer trust and ensure continuity in an unpredictable digital world. Visit our website to learn how Curiosity can help you maintain DORA compliance through rigorous test data monitoring: https://hubs.li/Q03DP7ny0

Cyberattacks aren’t just an enterprise problem—small and medium businesses are just as vulnerable, but often far less prepared. Recent research shows: - Fewer than 30% of SMBs have a formal recovery plan in place. - Only 1 in 4 feel confident they could quickly bounce back from a breach. - And shockingly, 60% of SMBs that suffer a major cyberattack close within 6 months. The takeaway? Data protection and recovery aren’t “IT issues”—they’re business survival issues. We see too many business owners underestimate the importance of resilience until it’s too late. Building the right strategy doesn’t just protect your systems—it protects your customers, your reputation, and your future growth. Question for SMB leaders: Do you feel confident your business could recover if hit with a breach tomorrow?

𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗢𝗜 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲? That’s the fastest way to fail. Return on investment is the language of boards. But applying it narrowly to governance and compliance is short-sighted. Yes, compliance investments should show returns but not only in “hard” numbers. ROI in GRC is about avoided fines, preserved reputation, faster audits, and stakeholder trust. Soft returns are just as real: saved time, improved morale, risk avoidance. The “ROI lie” in tech adoption is believing value can be promised in a neat formula. Every business has different vulnerabilities. For some, resilience during a supply chain disruption is the ROI. For others, it’s proof of compliance in an investor due diligence. Boards who demand simplistic ROI risk starving the organisation of governance tools until a crisis strikes. And by then, the cost is catastrophic. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿: 1 - Are we reducing GRC to “overhead,” or recognising its role in protecting enterprise value? 2 - How do we measure avoided costs, fines, downtime, reputational damage, as true ROI? 3 - Are we asking for ROI proof in pounds, when resilience itself is the return? 𝗣𝗦:  If you're interested in a solution to Grab compliance by the horns that doesn't require an Enterprise Budget or another patch, please feel free to get in touch now.

What the Business Really Wants from Security (Part 2 of 3) Principles for a security function the business trusts A security function that consistently delivers those outcomes I discussed in Wednesday's Post tends to share a handful of operating principles. Proportionality. Risks are ranked by credible impact and likelihood in the current context, not by abstract severity alone. This avoids spending scarce time on issues that cannot manifest and missing those that can. Observability. The programme treats live system behaviour as a primary source of truth. Evidence from production (or production-like environments) is used to confirm or challenge assumptions from design and testing. Time as a risk dimension. Exposure is measured not only in counts but in hours: how long a materially exploitable condition remains available to an adversary. This reframes success as shrinking windows of opportunity. Friction where it pays. Controls are placed where they remove the most risk per unit of delay. Many checks move into fast feedback loops (in tools developers already use), while slower governance is reserved for genuinely high-consequence changes. Plain language. Findings, exceptions, and decisions are written so that a product manager or finance lead can understand them at first reading. Clarity accelerates action. Measures that matter Executives do not need twenty metrics. They need a small set that connects security effort to business outcomes. Four serve well: Material Exposure Hours (MEH). The cumulative time that confirmed, exploitable conditions remain present on live systems. The number should trend down; spikes should be explained. Exploitability Ratio. The proportion of findings that are reachable and demonstrably exploitable in context. A rising ratio signals better signal-to-noise; a falling one suggests wasted effort. Time to Contain (TTC). How long it takes to interrupt an active attack path or materially reduce its blast radius (via configuration, feature flags, or compensating controls). Assurance Coverage. The percentage of business-critical flows where behaviour is evidenced (not inferred) by telemetry or test. It answers, “how much of what matters have we actually observed working as intended?” These measures translate directly into decisions. They indicate whether the organisation is learning faster than its attackers, whether attention is being spent wisely, and whether confidence is earned. Having the right metrics is just the start. Tomorrow: how to restructure your entire operating model...

In today’s fast-paced business environment, protecting your company’s digital assets is more critical than ever. As technology evolves, so do the threats that can disrupt your operations and compromise sensitive data. That’s why I believe investing in...