With faster access to their data, organizations can follow a data-driven approach to bring in business data and statistical rigor to identify the cause-and-effect relationship between the specific behaviors, competencies, skills and knowledge, and critical business outcomes (e.g. sales, profits, productivity, etc.). But be careful. Be very, very careful not to leave the data door open.

Last year’s super trend—still front and center—continues to grow in importance as more and more organizations experience the losses in value and reputation that can result from a security breach. And we’re not just talking about protecting data. Product design and other IP are also vulnerable to theft and sabotage.

The problem is likely to grow as cybercriminals become more skilled in infiltrating technology architectures and systems that weren’t designed from the ground up through a security lens. Ironically, concerns about cybersecurity could—and perhaps in some cases should—slow the adoption of other trends that drive innovation.

Organizations with a sophisticated approach to cybersecurity are no longer satisfied with locking the doors after the robbery has been committed. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that US federal government agencies alone would spend more than 14.5 billion dollars on IT security this year, and the worldwide financial services industry would spend 27.4 billion dollars on information security and fraud prevention. Now that’s a lot.

Going on the Offensive

Organizations such as these are beginning to employ more predictive approaches to threat intelligence and monitoring. In short, they’re going on the offensive. This may mean automated scanning of Internet “chatter” by far-flung groups and individuals who may intend cyberharm.

It may involve analyzing past hacks and breaches to create predictive models of which threats are likely to surface next. In many firms, it also means systematic and continuous probing of the organization’s own defenses to make sure that others don’t find a security hole first.

A Moving Target Creates New Demands

Companies adopting these types of offensive steps will no doubt find that they need new capabilities. Many cyber professionals don’t have the skills to do predictive threat intelligence or predictive analysis of past breaches. At the very least, extensive collaboration between analytics and cyber professionals may be required. And cybersecurity projects will need to rapidly move up the priority list for analytics groups.

You can bring your data flow to its highest and best uses or you can let it languish while you guess and your competitors pass you on the back stretch. And you DO NOT have to bet the farm and the horses to get where you want to go with your data assets.

We are a good match to be your analytics thought partner and trusted virtual team that delivers your data to your dashboards. And we know how to interface with security teams.

Our Austin, Texas location keeps us at the epicenter of planning analytics and data-driven innovation and keeps our global capabilities and services at the forefront of our industry.

Email us at kcerny@mia-consulting.com or call us at 512-478-3848to start a friendly, productive conversation.