Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Businesses’ greatest struggles with data privacy are ahead

By Nathan Vega, Vice President of Solutions Strategy at Protegrity

Over the last few years, the rise of digital services and shift to remote work have made cybercrimes the largest threat to organizations. In the third quarter of 2022 alone, approximately 108.9 million data records were exposed worldwide through data breaches; that’s a 70% increase from the previous quarter.

Data privacy is mission critical as businesses prepare for the continued onslaught of cybersecurity threats, the acceleration of cloud migration, and more privacy policy concerns about how user data is used and retained, in particular with the increasing use of biometrics for AI. Further, data sharing and analytics have become a must-have for businesses to ramp up decision-making and compete and thrive in a digital world.

As the promises of big data and AI grow in popularity and accessibility, I predict that businesses will struggle more than ever before to ensure their sensitive data stays safe and secure in 2023. Here are four reasons why:

1.   The biggest challenge to data privacy will be talent shortage in 2023. There are 3.5 million open positions in cybersecurity, according to the 2022 (ISC)2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, with data privacy jobs growing at 30% year over year for the second year in a row. Unlike cybersecurity, however, there are no high school or university programs for data privacy. As governments continue to enforce stricter privacy laws and increase penalties, businesses will struggle with a lack of individuals knowledgeable enough for them to maintain compliance.

2.   Data privacy and innovation will continue to be at odds. Protecting data privacy and staying compliant are the two biggest drivers that lead businesses to lock down valuable data, impeding innovation, growth and digital transformation. Businesses that don’t invest in privacy or are unable to utilize their data will have decreased consumer trust and competitiveness, while increasing the likelihood of disruption from nimble upstarts and competitors. ” According to a PwC survey, 87% of business leaders said their customers have high trust in their company, only 30% of actual customers said they do. Success[NV1] ful businesses will find technologies that enable them to leverage critical data securely, allowing them to stay competitive and offer new experiences and trust for customers.

3.   Comprehensive data privacy legislation is unlikely in 2023. Unfortunately, given the political state of our country, with a divided Congress, it is unlikely we will see much movement on data privacy legislation. As lawmakers try to better their understanding of privacy and cybersecurity, laws that are proposed and passed may not fully align with the needs of businesses or with the rate of digital transformation. The impetus to implement and drive advanced data privacy for their customers’ sensitive information will remain on responsible enterprises.

4.   Data privacy enforcement will continue, but investments need to be strategic. Privacy enforcement is increasing, and businesses will ultimately have to invest in privacy, with 75% of the world expected to be under privacy law by 2024. However, minimally investing to stay compliant is different from strategically investing in order to thrive. Companies that opt for a compliance-only approach will grapple with evolving regulations leading to data compromises, hefty fines, loss of consumer trust, and reputational damages. They will be forced to reevaluate and return to the beginning of their investment cycle. Strategic data security rooted in fine-grained data protection will be critical in 2023 to keep pace with digital transformation and the global legislative environment.

Conclusion:

With the widespread attention on data privacy growing exponentially, industries and governments need to work together to develop standards that safeguard sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands, without stifling innovation. Given the scale and complexity involved with protecting sensitive data as it moves across clouds and across borders (in particular, data collected by burgeoning AI platforms), no one company, group or individual can solve these challenges in isolation.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Protegrity’s Vice President of Solutions Strategy, Nathan Vega is responsible for revenue growth and product adoption. Nathan brings deep experience and expertise in the data security space, regularly providing thought leadership on data privacy, precision data protection, data sovereignty, compliance and other critical issues impacting the industry. Prior to Protegrity, Nathan led product marketing and sales at Covail and spent nearly 15 years at IBM before that.