Studying the Tension Between Digital Innovation and Cybersecurity

With increasing economic pressures and exponential growth in technological innovations, companies are increasingly relying on digital technologies for innovation and value creation. But, with increasing levels of cybersecurity breaches, the trustworthiness of many established and new technologies is of concern. Consequently, companies are aggressively increasing cybersecurity of their existing and new digital assets. Most companies have to deal with these priorities simultaneously which are frequently conflicting, and creating tensions. This paper introduces a framework for evaluating these risk/reward trade-offs. Through a survey and interviews, companies are positioned in different quadrants on an innovation/cybersecurity matrix overlaid with the negative impact of cybersecurity controls on the innovative projects. The paper analyzes the industry level, firm level, technology management, and technology maturity factors that affect these trade-offs. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided to help a company to evaluate its positioning on the matrix, understand the underlying factors, and how to better manage these trade-offs.