A Google search of “digital trust” turns up 5.73 billion results, and hundreds of recent trade press articles have covered the topic. Most of them say things like, “A 5-step Approach to Digital Trust Through Cybersecurity.” It’s not uncommon for organizations and media to frame digital trust in terms of security, but ISACA believes it is broader than that.
Trust is assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something. Digital trust focuses on how trust manifests in a digital context. Digital trust is needed in all relationships that evolve in a digital ecosystem. The trust required extends beyond the trust in the technology to include trust in the people, process and organization.
ISACA’s official definition of digital trust is “the confidence in the integrity of relations, interactions and transactions among providers and consumers within an associated digital ecosystem.” Breaking down this definition:
- Integrity refers to a code of moral value, not the traditional security definition
- It is essential to consider the entire ecosystem, which often involves more than two parties.
- Security, privacy, risk, assurance, quality and governance contribute to and can uphold digital trust.
- Ethics, transparency and accountability play a significant role.
- It is encompassing of brand, product quality, data ethics and reliability.
Digital trust use cases are countless, ranging from banking transactions to video doctor visits to vote collection. The figure below highlights several high-level use cases as a demonstration of how prevalent, widespread and essential digital trust is to an organization.
Figure 1—Digital Trust Use Cases
“The days of forging partnerships on the golf course are essentially gone,” said ISACA Senior Vice President of Publishing Shannon Donahue during a recent session on the topic at ISACA Conference North America 2022. “But trust is still crucial, even—and especially—in a digital world.”
Digital trust is a significant factor in driving consumers’ decisions. It is also a critical factor in keeping an organization competitive. It helps to improve enterprises’ reputation and drive customer loyalty.
“Digital trust must be instilled throughout the entire organization, and initiatives must be developed with digital trust in mind,” said ISACA VP of Content Karen Heslop.
It must also be kept top of mind when working with vendors and suppliers.
Digital Trust Framework Coming Soon
Because digital trust is so all-encompassing and impactful for ISACA’s professional community and digital trust professionals everywhere, ISACA is committed to developing resources to help individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust.
One of the major resources is the Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework (DTEF), which will complement existing frameworks and models and cover six domains:
- Culture
- Emergence
- Human Factors
- Enabling and Support
- Direct and Monitor
- Architecture
More than 90 digital trust professionals worldwide recently provided comments on the framework during a public exposure period. Those comments are now being addressed, and the framework will be available in Q4 2022.
More information on digital trust, including a free white paper, is available at www.isaca.org/digital-trust.
