From Risk to ROI: How Security Maturity Drives Business Value

Improving security maturity pays off

Let’s start with three high-impact reasons why advancing security maturity drives real business value:

Compliance: 57% better outcomes

Security maturity models help organizations align with relevant standards and regulations. This matters: According to the 2025 Thales Data Threat Report, 78% of enterprises that failed compliance audits also suffered a breach”, compared to just 21% of those that passed. Over the past five years, the likelihood of a breach dropped by 50% for organizations that consistently passed their compliance audits.

Faster response: 25.9% cost savings

A mature security posture enables faster threat detection and response. The difference is measurable: breaches contained under 200 days cost $3.87 million on average, compared to $5.01 million for longer incidents”, a 24% savings. Those organizations who detected the breach internally also observed nearly $1 million savings on breach costs compared to those disclosed by an attacker. Speed matters for minimizing financial damage, reducing downtime, and maintaining business continuity.

Trust: 30-40 points higher

Consumer trust in digital services is declining, with 82% abandoning brands because of concerns about data privacy and security. The Thales Digital Trust Index found 64% of consumers said their brand confidence would significantly increase if innovative, advanced technologies were being used to protect sensitive data. Beyond these benefits, let’s tackle a core challenge: Which comes first”, compliance, risk, or data security?

Which comes first: Compliance, risk, or data security?

These three benefits”, compliance, faster response, and trust”, show why advancing security maturity leads to stronger business outcomes. But they also surface a common organizational dilemma: Where should the security journey begin, with compliance, risk, or data security?

COMPLIANCE: A foundational requirement

For many organizations, business continuity mandates that the security journey start with compliance. While achieving compliance is a necessary first step, it is not a long-term strategy on its own. Compliance-driven efforts tend to be reactive, intermittent, and narrowly focused. They aim to meet requirements rather than anticipate future threats, which can create a false sense of security. Compliance is especially critical in healthcare organizations. They handle sensitive patient data and rely on interconnected systems, making them particularly vulnerable to breaches and disruption. Healthcare compliance involves implementing data security measures to protect sensitive patient information (PHI) and adhering to regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.

To meeting specific compliance requirements, organizations must manage sensitive data effectively. This includes protecting data from unauthorized access, breaches, and other security threats. To safeguard data against cyber threats such as breaches, ransomware, unauthorized access, and maintain compliance, organizations should implement robust data security measures. These measures include encryption and access controls, maintain strong data governance practices, and automate compliance reporting.

RISK: Raising the bar with risk-first thinking

At more advanced security maturity levels, organizations shift from merely reacting to regulations to proactively managing actual risk. A risk-first approach prioritizes security efforts based on the actual risks that vulnerabilities pose to the organization. It focuses on addressing security gaps that present the greatest threat to critical assets and business objectives. This prioritization considers both the likelihood of exploitation and the potential business impact, enabling organizations to effectively allocate resources for the most critical vulnerabilities. A risk-based approach provides a more proactive stance and adjusts to evolving threats and business needs. Compliance becomes a pillar of a wider-reaching risk-first strategy versus a sole security approach. However, many sectors are slow to adopt a risk-based approach because of their lower levels of security maturity. Many cyber threats are directed at vulnerable industries due to outdated security tooling, low visibility to risk exposures, and security gaps as they transition to the cloud. In general, the financial sector and manufacturing industries are recognized as the most vulnerable and must prioritize cybersecurity based on the high value of their data and the potential for significant disruption.

SECURITY: The pinnacle of maturity: A data-first mindset

The highest level of security maturity is a data-first or security-first approach. Here, the strategy focuses on safeguarding data, prioritizing the protection of sensitive data. To do so, organizations must establish an understanding of data flows”, including data at rest and in transit”, and their respective risks. This mindset starts in the design phase. Security controls are built in from the beginning, applying “secure by design” and “secure by default” principles. Data security builds robust controls that can adapt to the evolving threat landscape, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for real-time threat detection and rapid response.

To remain resilient, data security can be implemented in a phased approach to meet top organizational needs, such as:

The bottom line

For organizations just starting their cybersecurity journey, compliance is often the first milestone”, and rightly so. But compliance alone isn’t enough to stay secure in a threat landscape that moves faster than the regulations that govern it. And, consumer trust in digital services is declining, causing customer defections. The adoption of emerging security technologies significantly boosts consumer confidence, sustaining customer loyalty and the revenue from it, contributing to positive, bottom-line results. Mature organizations recognize this. They go beyond compliance and embrace security-first approaches that are proactive, adaptive, and built to scale with complexity. These strategies don’t just align with regulatory requirements”, they anticipate and neutralize real threats before they materialize, building resilience, saving money, and earning trust. Simply put, security maturity isn’t just about reducing risk”, it’s about unlocking ROI via stronger, smarter business outcomes. Read more about Thales Data Security solutions to accelerate your compliance initiatives, gain control over your risk, and secure sensitive data to improve operational resilience, visibility, and control: CipherTrust Data Security Platform: Encryption, tokenization, key management, and data discovery, all in one platform. Data Security Posture Management (DSPM): Visualize and protect sensitive data across