DigiCert, Inc. released its 2022 State of Digital
Trust Survey that finds that almost half of consumers (47%) have stopped doing
business with a company after losing trust in that company's digital security.
If companies do not manage digital trust, 84% of their customers would consider
switching, with 57% saying switching would be likely.
Digital trust enables
organizations and individuals to participate in the connected world with the
confidence that their digital footprint is secure. Amid the backdrop of an
expanding attack surface, leading organizations require digital trust for a variety
of use cases, including connected device and user identity and access, data
integrity, software security, email protection, and web and digital content
integrity. Companies that are strategically investing in digital trust are
positioning themselves now as stewards of a secure, connected world.
"Digital trust isn't just a buzzword. It provides the
freedom to fully participate in the digital world," said Jason Sabin, CTO at
DigiCert. "It has become crucial to maintaining customer loyalty and the loss of
it has a direct impact to the brand. If customers lose confidence in the
digital trust competency of a vendor, they'll eventually leave."
One hundred percent of enterprises surveyed said digital
trust is important. Top reasons include the growing importance of data, an
expanding threat surface, an increase in bad actors and pressure from
customers. Nearly all (99%) enterprises believe it is possible that their
customers would switch to a competitor if they lost trust in the enterprise's
digital security.
Enterprise and Consumer Perceptions Differ
It's also essential to take stock of how customers perceive the digital trust of an organization.
Ninety-nine percent of enterprises said their customers have more confidence in
the enterprise's digital trust today than in the past. Nearly three quarters
(73%) said it is significantly more. Organizations
recognize the importance of digital trust to their success, and top digital
trust initiatives include increasing customer loyalty, reducing the number of
security incidents and meeting regulatory requirements. But it isn't easy. The
top three challenges IT cited include managing digital certificates, meeting
regulatory compliance and handling the massive scope of digital assets to
protect.
Consumers don't have the same perceptions as organizations.
More than half (57%) of consumers surveyed have experienced cybersecurity
attacks. Top attacks include account hacks, password exposure, and bank or
credit account theft. Less than half of the consumer respondents said their
digital trust in the organizations they deal with is more than in the past, and
54% say there is room for improvement.
Regional Differences
North America leads the world in rating digital trust as
extremely important, followed by Asia-Pacific (APAC). Ninety-one percent
of APAC consumers are concerned about cyber threats, more than anywhere
else in the world. For a region with stringent privacy laws, EMEA consumers are
surprisingly relaxed about digital trust and have the lowest level of concern
for cyber threats. However, EMEA shows strong interest at the enterprise level.
Latin America-based enterprises lag behind the other regions in viewing digital
trust as extremely important.
Enterprises Valuing Digital Trust
Perform Better
The survey included a series of questions to
determine how well (or poorly) each respondent was doing across a wide range of
digital trust metrics. After the scores were totaled, the respondents were
split into three groups: leaders, laggards and those in the middle.
The leaders and laggards were then compared to
examine the differences and explore what the leaders were doing
better.
The leaders report doing three times as well as laggards
with eCommerce website performance and availability, and 2.9 times as many say
they're doing well at preventing phishing or other email-based attacks. The
leaders range from 10% better to 300% better in every metric. Overall, the
leaders' approach to digital trust is more strategic. For example:
- The top tier is 4.5 times as likely to believe a loss
of customer trust will lead to a loss of that customer. They are also more
likely to believe that digital trust affects their brand, sales and
margin. In addition, they are 5.6 times as likely to say they would switch
business partners if they lost trust.
- The top tier is further along in their digital trust
journey and will complete that journey much earlier than the bottom tier.
- The top tier takes cyber threats much more seriously.
They are 1.5 to 2.3 times as likely to be concerned about cyber threats.
- The top tier is up to three times as likely to be
engaged with important cybersecurity safeguards.
Recommendations
DigiCert recommends the following steps to improve digital
trust:
- Make digital trust a strategic imperative. This was one
of the clear differentiators for the top-tier enterprises, which
recognized that digital trust impacts important business outcomes such as
brand, customer loyalty, revenue and margins.
- Establish a Digital Trust Office within your
organization's technology function, with a clear leader empowered with
decision-making power.
- Recognize that digital trust awareness is rising among
your users, including consumers, and that your business success and
reputation are tied directly to your ability to ensure digital trust at a
high level.
- Enlist expert help in your quest for digital trust. One
of the digital trust challenges cited by enterprises was a lack of staff
expertise. Make sure the partners you bring on have a comprehensive
portfolio spanning the building blocks of digital trust and can provide
solutions for unified trust management for your entire organization.
- Remember - your customers care about digital trust and
protecting servers, users, devices, documents and DevOps processes.
Establish clear lines of digital trust communication with them, explaining
not only your commitment to digital trust but also your progress.
Dallas-based
Eleven Research administered the survey to 400 IT, Information Security and
DevOps senior and C-level managers from enterprises with 1,000 or more
employees. Four hundred consumers were also surveyed. Responses were global.
For more information and to get the full report,
visit https://www.digicert.com/campaigns/digital-trust-survey.