Editor’s note: ISACA welcomed Daniel Dobrygowski, the head of governance and trust for the World Economic Forum, for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on ISACA’s Engage platform 24-28 April. Dobrygowski is an attorney and educator with two decades of experience where technology, law and policy intersect. He is a member of ISACA’s Digital Trust Advisory Council and oversees the World Economic Forum’s work relating to technology risk, corporate governance and digital trust. This AMA session led to a robust community discussion of topics like AI, digital trust, governance, digital democracy and more. See below for highlights from the thread, which can be found in full here for additional insights. To participate in the next AMA session, join the conversation on Engage!
What do Daniel Dobrygowski, ISACA and the World Economic Forum have in common?
A focus on digital trust.
Dobrygowski has worked with the Forum on digital trust for several years, and ISACA’s community of digital trust professionals was excited to pick his brain about related topics in his recent AMA session. AI was at the forefront of the conversation, just as it has been at the forefront of the news cycles in recent months.
When asked about the rapid rise of AI and corresponding governance from both the industry and regulators, Dobrygowski says, “Ultimately, this regulatory activity stems from the fact that, for regular individuals and the governments who represent them, many technologies have developed in ways that no longer seem trustworthy. It’s going to be incumbent on the companies developing and deploying these technologies—especially some of the tech with the potential to cause significant changes in society and business—to show why their decisions relating to those technologies are trustworthy. It’s up to the companies making the claim that regulation isn’t the answer to show what concrete, measurable, and transparent steps they plan to take to earn trust for the tech they’re developing.”
Working toward transparency and digital trust is for the benefit of enterprises and individuals alike. It can be difficult to know where to start learning about digital trust due to its overlap with many different fields and perspectives. Dobrygowski emphasizes that adopting an interdisciplinary mindset is key when you are becoming a digital trust professional, and engaging with other open minds from widely different fields with curiosity and a willingness to learn is important to the advancement of digital trust.
As ISACA develops the Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework, governance is key. Dobrygowski recognizes that “Where do we begin?” commonly comes up in conversations about digital trust and governance, and he says everything starts with leadership. “The ISACA Digital Trust Ecosystem Framework as well as the Forum's framework on this topic have great starting points for a conversation about the benefits of focusing on digital trust for organizations,” he says. “That's really where the governance work begins—by discussing why it is important!”
Executive commitment and leadership are critical to the success of upholding digital trust; therefore, avoiding overly technical jargon while explaining its importance to senior leaders is key. IT managers must find a way to communicate technical and financial issues clearly in order to secure organizational buy-in. According to Dobrygowski, it is important to create an understanding that technological security and trustworthiness is in the interests of the company’s bottom line and all of its stakeholders.
“After all, governance and trust aren't just ends in themselves, they serve a function. Based on the Forum's digital trust definition, that function is to meet peoples’ expectation that technology should ‘protect all stakeholders’ interests and uphold societal expectations and values,’” says Dobrygowski. “So, defining who those stakeholders are and understanding their values is vital. Only then do we get to talking specifically about the technologies themselves and what to do about them in order to achieve our goals (which must include earning trust).”
Beyond business, digital trust also has an essential place in well-functioning democracy. Social media and trustworthy technology have a great effect on elections and government, and Dobrygowski says that digital trust is important to the protection of civil society. From his time working for a presidential campaign in the 2012 election, Dobrygowski gained insight into the legal, policy and technological issues arising from the patchwork of US election systems. Digital trust and digital democracy are deeply entwined.
“We're in the midst of what I call the ‘digital disruption of democracy,’ and it's incumbent on every person who believes in the vitality of democratic processes to do what they can to shore up trust in democratic systems,” he says. “That has legal, social and policy implications, but it also has technology implications —namely, we need to make sure tech is more trustworthy before we inflict it on society, especially for the most vital functions—and that includes digital public infrastructure (like elections and provision of social services).”
