Poor training, skills affect digital trust of Indian enterprises: Report

Only 24% respondents in India had complete understanding of digital trust, says global study

Indian enterprises risk losing customers and they are vulnerable to cyber attacks because of poor understanding of "digital trust", said a global survey on Friday.

The State of Digital Trust 2022 report by ISACA, a global group on information technology (IT) governance, listed the gaps between what businesses are doing and what they should to build trust.

Only 23 per cent enterprises in India have dedicated staff for digital trust. Some 34 per cent said they do not have such a role yet but they will likely have in five years.

According to 194 enterprises in India, lack of skills and training (56 per cent), lack of leadership buy-in (49 per cent), a lack of alignment of digital trust and enterprise goals (49 per cent), lack of technological resources (47 per cent) and insufficient processes and/or governance practices (41 per cent) were the most significant obstacles to digital trust.

The survey defined digital trust as the confidence in the integrity of relationships, interactions, and transactions among providers and consumers within an associated digital ecosystem. 

A majority of respondents in India consider security, privacy, data integrity, and risk management as the main components of digital trust. Around 85 per cent of respondents said digital trust will be more or much more important in the coming five years than it is today, but 57 percent of organizations still do not provide training in digital trust.

As many as 53 per cent of Indian respondents were "very confident" and 24 per cent "completely confident" about the digital trustworthiness of their organisations. Only 24 per cent respondents had a complete understanding of digital trust.

“Digital trust is the bedrock of business relationships, and is critical for strategic digital transformation,” said David Samuelson, chief executive officer, of ISACA. “Innovation, market leadership, and financial performance rely heavily on trust that must be earned every day.”

The report recommended senior executives to clearly define and prioritise digital trust in organizations. It said that measuring of digital trust is critical to improving an organisation’s maturity.