Shifting Left: How to Find the Right Balance Between Innovation and Risk

Mohamed Ahmed
Magalix
Published in
5 min readOct 31, 2021

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The pursuit of innovation and the deployment of cybersecurity measures often appear mutually exclusive. The steps we take to enhance security are concentrated on mitigating risk, while innovation demands you to be open to taking risks.

Sometimes, organizations decide to prioritize innovation over security to gain a competitive advantage. Although it feels like a challenging decision for product owners and business leaders, it shouldn’t be. While innovation and time to market are critical, so is security. You need to find a healthy balance between both.

It’s important because innovation opens the path to new revenue streams, enhances customer experiences, and creates new market opportunities. Robust security, on the other hand, ensures compliance and helps maintain brand image and value.

What are the Risks?

Human error is one of the leading causes of security incidents. For example, in 2019, human error was the leading cause of 90% of cybersecurity breaches in the UK. So, before you focus on innovation, think about mitigating risk.

If that wasn’t bad enough, businesses also have to be alert to ransomware attacks. It’s crucial as the average ransomware payment increased by more than $100,000 in the first…

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Mohamed Ahmed
Magalix

Magalix Co-Founder, dad, and learner @MohamedFAhmed