The rapid pace of technological evolution represents a massive challenge for companies whose operations are based on a digital business model. In order to manage risk and shore up security, we’re going to see a new trend of CEOs introducing Digital Risk Officers (DROs) to take on such challenges.

Gartner highlights this trend in its latest CEO and Senior Executive Survey. Its finding reveal that more than 50 percent of CEOs plan to have a DRO on their company’s books by the end of 2015. By 2017, more than a third of large enterprises will count a DRO among their ranks.

But what exactly is a DRO and what will he do? According to Gartner, they’ll be reporting to a senior executive outside of IT, such as the chief operating officer or chief risk officer. He or she will be charged with managing risk at an executive level across all digital business units, working with peers in areas such as compliance, digital marketing, digital sales, legal and privacy.

Who will be the next DRO? In many cases, it’s likely that CISOs will evolve into DROs as these start to form effective partnerships with digital security teams who’re managing other kinds of tech. As for IT security leaders, these will report to the new DRO while continuing with their current responsibilities. Moreover, as physical security management becomes digitized, this trend will include physical security teams as well.

“Digital risk officers will require a mix of business acumen and understanding with sufficient technical knowledge to assess and make recommendations for appropriately addressing digital business risk,” said Paul Proctor, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Many traditional security officers will change their titles to digital risk and security officers, but without material change in their scope, mandate, and skills they will not fulfill this role in its entirety.”

Whether the DRO will be effective remains to be seen, but we can expect some problems along the way. Gartner says that service disruptions are set to become more common in future. By 2020, more than 60 percent of digital businesses will suffer from some form of service disruption, due to the inability of IT security staff to handle digital risk that arises from an influx of new technologies.

As such, IT, Internet of Things, operational technology and physical security technologies will need to be interweaved, while companies will need to adopt a risk-based approach to governance and security.

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