Understanding Digital Immune Systems

Our bodies fight off illnesses better when we look after our immune systems. We get exercise, we sleep well, and we eat well. We take appropriate medication if needed, and we try and keep our mental health robust.

IT systems need a similar approach to deal with increasingly volatile online environments and risks. A digital immune system, or DIS, refers to the methods of protection an IT asset has in place to improve resiliency and reduce vulnerabilities. Investing in scalable DIS could give companies the ability to thrive even when critical incidents threaten the uptime of systems.

What is a digital immune system?

A DIS is a combination of different technologies and development practices aimed at improving business continuity. Businesses are at risk from cybercrime and tampering, natural disasters, or even simple software bugs. Poor-performing software causes unsatisfactory user experiences (UX), which can reduce productivity or drive customers and clients away. 

Gartner states that 48% of organizations create digital assets to improve customer experience (CX). They also predict that these same organizations could decrease downtime by 80% by investing in digital immunity practices.

Why is the digital immune system such a critical aspect of cybersecurity?

Digital immunity encompasses several aspects of IT resilience — including time-to-discovery and time-to-recovery during incidents, cybersecurity, and automation — to simplify development and increase monitoring and observability. All these factors are critical due to the increasing challenges faced by business leaders and IT professionals to remain innovative and shorten time-to-market.

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A recent article on malware by professionals at Iriguard and other respected organizations states that cyber threats are becoming so complex that traditional cybersecurity methodologies struggle to remain effective. Building digital immunity principles into software helps mitigate the increasing risks of data breaches and other impacts on business performance.

Software development principles that create a robust DIS

How do IT service providers and developers ensure that their software is robust and resilient against potential threats? The following principles help improve software quality, helping mitigate risk and recover from downtime faster.

Site reliability engineering

Site reliability engineering (SRE) principles include automation, simplicity, continuous deployment, and more aimed at streamlining production while bridging the gap between developers and operational teams. SRE helps organizations manage complex systems while remaining resilient in the face of risk.

Automated software testing

Automating software testing via artificial intelligence or machine learning creates the opportunity for additional testing and reduces the risk of human error. 

Experimental software testing

The next natural step is to include experimental testing protocols, such as chaos engineering, specifically designed to hunt for weaknesses or flaws. 

Observability

Observability is critical to understand system performance and the cause of any issues. Observability requires a way to log events, relevant metrics to measure performance by, and tracing methods to dive deeper into potential problems. 

Automatic remediation

Automatic remediation, or "autoremediation," means an IT service can notice a problem, assess it, and fix it. Autoremediation can utilize observability within a system, gleaning data about latency, traffic, or message success rates, for example, and using those data points to take action where necessary. Software capable of autoremediation should also be able to return to its standard working state once any repairs occur. 

Software supply chain security

The software supply chain refers to any aspect that interacts with a piece of software, service, or application. As DevOps teams utilize more third-party services and code than ever, these supply chains are increasingly difficult to manage. 

Software supply chain security must ensure that all aspects of a system, including third-party code or services like APIs, are up to the same cybersecurity standards demanded by the organization and the task at hand. Any new, proprietary code must also be up to standards, and developers must not make compromises to ensure compatibility between systems.

Software supply chain security needs to consider the robustness of open-source code, dependencies, cloud-based services such as SaaS and PaaS, container-based images, and data transfer methods. Development teams can start by ensuring that they keep a bill of materials, a carefully curated document that lists every tool or service that feeds into the system or software in question. Version control is also a part of the supply chain security, helping teams understand what changes have been made and why. 

Creating a digital immune system creates better outcomes for all

The Biden-Harris administration launched the National Cybersecurity Strategy in March 2023, aimed at securing “…the full benefits of a safe and secure digital ecosystem for all Americans.” IT organizations, in particular, are expected to take more responsibility for preventing wider cybersecurity threats and creating strategic plans to improve digital immune systems.

Focusing on a robust, resilient digital immune system helps protect the organization's data while achieving better business continuity by recovering swiftly after critical incidents. However, it’s vital to note that DIS supports the overall customer or user experience too. CS is badly affected by glitches and bugs.

A piece of software that is down when a user needs it won’t get used or recommended as often as one with 99.99% uptime. Focusing on the above principles to supercharge the resilience of a business’s DIS can boost ROI by making customers and users happier.

DIS also increases the reputation of a business’s brand by proving that customers and clients can rely on that organization to keep their data secure. In March 2023, telecoms giant AT&T told 9 million customers their data could be at risk following a cyberattack.

Upon investigation, risks were discovered going as far back as 2014, starting with employees failing to follow privacy policies and culminating in malware being used to steal customer data. Even when a company acknowledges fault and takes steps to remediate data loss, customer confidence is impacted. Building digital immunity into all systems reduces risk, increases time-to-recovery, and helps cement longer-term business-client relationships.

Adversio helps empower companies to create resilient and reliable IT-based assets. We share our expertise in digital transformation to provide insights that drive profitability while creating memorable digital experiences. Contact us to find out more.