Sophia Bekele speaks on "Vision 2030: Enabling Digital Transparency & Accountability Through Digital Transformation" at GRC International Forum,Florida

Sophia Bekele Presenting at 2022 Grc Conference

Sophia shares her "Vision 2030: Enabling Digital Transparency & Accountability through Digital Transformation",

at the GRC 2022 International Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Our Founder and CEO, Sophia Bekele was invited to speak at the 2022 GRC Conference which continues to be the premier education event for information technology audit, security, governance, risk, and compliance professionals. The conference was held at JW Marriot Grande Hotel in Orlando, Florida on 22 - 24 August and featured five tracks packed with top-flight speakers and cutting-edge topics.

Speaking at the session Sophia presented a topic on Vision 2030, "Enabling Digital Transparency & Accountability, Through Digital Transformation”, Sophia spoke on her experiences in her early tech startups which were tasked with bridging the digital divide in developing economies via Web 1.0/2.0 technologies focusing on building connectivity and mass computerization and content development, which she noted was a path towards "digital transformation" on its own accord. What is different now, she says is that we have transitioned to a "data economy" where AI and machine learning are the overriding technologies that businesses need to adapt, in order to compete.

She stressed that digitizing these business processes requires Information governance, and with that comes heightened transparency and accountability in the organization. While not all organizations may be comfortable with this level of disclosure, without transparency and accountability, an organization will have its workflow disrupted by a lack of vision and consistency. Transparency can eliminate unnecessary frustration by offering a clear outlook on the cause of any problem that an organization can face.

According to McKinsey research, Sophia cited, "60% of organizations, are not ready yet to start implementing risk management measures."

She also discussed in detail a wide array of key issues that need to be addressed in Digital transformation that arises from current emerging and foundational technologies.

Sophia informed that the lack of powerful tools for visibility, accountability, and auditing is a major obstacle in the complex processes of supply chains of Industry 4.0. Sophia then cited and discussed some of the currently available tools and technologies that can be used to audit risk.

She informed the audience that Web 3.0, is the next transformation of the World Wide Web and noted that the dark side of Web 3.0 is that it is vulnerable to phishing attacks. She also warned that social engineering bypasses all technologies including firewalls.

Even so, She said, I have learned from experience that these risks can be mitigated through various measures, which she discussed in detail.

Sophia noted, "It is evident that organizations will not remain competitive unless they radically adapt to the demands of the digital era". Despite this, "about 50 percent of organizations have difficulty understanding the risks generated by digital transformations".

In the end, Sophia said that we can build transparency by using 4 principles:

Call it out, Support it, Structure it, Exercise it.

Click ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO LISTEN to what Sophia had to say about her experience at the GRC 2022 Conference.

Sophia Bekele has over two decades of experience in corporate governance, risk management, technology audit & control, international policy, and legal and is certified in CISA, CCS, and CGEIT.

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