The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitalization, making more areas of our personal and professional lives vulnerable to cyberattacks. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the costs from global cybercrime are expected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015. Executives are not able to ignore this threat.
Öykü Işık, has been named to the 2022 Thinkers50 Radar list for her work on building companies’ digital resilience to cyber attacks, as well as her research on the ethical implications of technologies. Thinkers50 publishes an annual global Radar list which identifies, ranks and shares the very best in today’s management ideas.
“Eventually, every organization will be breached, so you also need to have the capability to respond quickly and minimize the damage the best that you can,” says Işık, who teaches a program on Cybersecurity for Managers which drills executives on how to handle a Ransomware attack.
“If a company gets back on its feet quickly and does a good job communicating and recovering, then it is fine reputationally,” says Işık. “Every business executive should have a minimum level of knowledge and understanding around cybersecurity.”
Another aspect of her research focuses on the ethics of ‘Big Data’. Working with companies such as Mastercard, she has helped organizations understand customer concerns and shape their privacy and data-processing policies. Her most recent research surrounds the perception of A.I.-driven services and how companies can build trust and transparency.
Işık believes the emerging field of digital ethics, which encompasses the work of philosophers, computer scientists and bioethicists, will become increasingly important as concerns grow over how organizations use digital technologies, such as AI, for surveillance.
“We need more practical, accessible knowledge for how we operationalize this ethical thinking and ethics-by-design,” says Işık, who last year was elected as Digital Shaper 2021 by BILANZ and Digital Switzerland.
An Istanbul native, Işık received a BSc in Computer Science, as well as an MBA, from Istanbul Bilgi University. She received a PhD from the University of North Texas, completing her work in business computer information systems.
Her published work encompasses the topics of business intelligence and analytics, technology management and business process management. Her current research focuses on AI trust and transparency, and strategic implications of cybersecurity.
