To María Waleska Álvarez, CEO and executive president of the Caribbean NAP, Investment in cybersecurity must be evaluated beyond the savings it generates or the income it protects. It is also necessary to calculate how much it costs an organization to stop its operations, breach contractual commitments and deteriorate its reputation with customers, suppliers and business allies.
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Trust occupies a central place in that equation. In an economy where transactions, services and business relationships increasingly depend on digital platforms, a disruption can have consequences that go beyond immediate losses. Regaining credibility after an incident can represent a considerable challenge for companies that have taken years to build their positioning.
Cybersecurity as an investment for growth
Measuring the return on investment in cybersecurity requires considering both the risks that are avoided and the business opportunities that are made possible thanks to a secure infrastructure. This perspective, shared by specialists, places digital protection as a condition for innovating, expanding services and offering better experiences to users.
Tomás Alonso, Country Manager of Mastercard in the Dominican Republic and HaitiYes, it suggests that cybersecurity should also be understood as an enabler of new businesses. In the payments industry, for example, the ability to process a transaction securely, even in unusual circumstances, supports service continuity and strengthens the customer experience.
Reliable operation can influence the preference of consumers, who expect to make payments and access services without unnecessary interruptions. Therefore, although some benefits are difficult to quantify directly, their impact is reflected in the trust, loyalty and growth possibilities of companies.
From this perspective, the return is not limited to the money that an organization stops losing in the event of an attack. It also includes the ability to keep your services available, protect your relationship with your users, and develop new solutions without compromising security.
Innovate without neglecting digital protection
Technological transformation poses an additional challenge for companies. As they look to modernize their processes and incorporate artificial intelligence, automation and data analytics tools, they need to prevent security controls from becoming a barrier to innovation.
Carlos Barranco, general director of Crecerlab, considers that cybersecurity should also be analyzed from the perspective of innovation and sustainability of organizations. Maintaining protected operations is important, but not enough if the company loses its ability to adapt to market changes.
The challenge is to find a balance between protection and technological evolution. An organization that neglects its systems exposes itself to incidents that can affect its operation, while another that postpones innovation runs the risk of losing competitiveness compared to companies that develop new capabilities.
Barranco also highlights the need to strengthen human capabilities in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats. Artificial intelligence expands defense possibilities, but it can also be used by attackers to perfect their methods. Faced with this reality, companies need to review their protection strategies, invest in knowledge and stay abreast of technological advances that may modify the risk landscape.
Digital resilience depends on the entire ecosystem
Prevent all cybersecurity incidents is not a realistic expectation. Therefore, in addition to establishing protection mechanisms, organizations need to develop the capacity to maintain their essential services and recover when an interruption occurs.
This capacity, known as digital resilience, requires having alternative systems, redundant infrastructure, permanent monitoring and procedures that allow us to respond in a timely manner. The goal is to reduce the impact of an incident and prevent a failure from turning into a prolonged business downtime.
For Alvarez, Collaboration between organizations is essential to face the risks that affect digital ecosystems. Companies may have advanced protection systems, but their security also depends on the providers, platforms and third parties with which they exchange information.
The financial sector illustrates this interdependence. Entities can maintain high security standards and still be exposed to vulnerabilities present in an external provider or service. Therefore, protection should not be limited to internal systems, but should be extended to the entire chain of technological relationships.
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Alonso agrees that connectivity requires paying attention to three essential aspects. The first is digital identity, whose verification must offer security without generating unnecessary obstacles for the user. The second is the speed of transactions, which reduces the time available to detect irregularities and make decisions. The third is dependence on third parties, whose connections and applications can also become points of vulnerability.
Coordination between the parties, along with evaluation and supervision mechanisms, is essential to reduce the risks that can spread through an interconnected ecosystem.
Artificial intelligence and the new threat landscape
Artificial intelligence is transforming so much defense tools as well as the methods used to commit attacks. Its ability to analyze large volumes of information allows you to identify patterns, detect unusual behavior and improve incident prevention. However, it also makes it easier to create more convincing scam messages and other techniques that make it difficult to identify threats.
Ramón Ureña, Country Manager of ESEThighlights the importance of knowing the level of technological maturity of each company before recommending protection solutions. The needs of an organization depend on its infrastructure, its processes, the type of information it handles and the vulnerabilities it presents.
This diagnosis can be complemented with professional application evaluation services, awareness programs for collaborators and threat intelligence that allows identifying risks associated with domains, websites and phishing campaigns.
Prevention also requires reviewing how an organization’s systems interact with external platforms.. Application programming interfaces, known as APIs, facilitate the exchange of information and the integration of services, but must have appropriate authentication, monitoring and control mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access.
Ureña emphasizes that security must be worked on at both ends of a connection. Protecting only those who send or receive information is not enough if the other party maintains vulnerabilities that can compromise the exchange.
Governance and responsible use of artificial intelligence
The incorporation of artificial intelligence in Business processes also require establishing clear rules on the use of data. Without a governance policy, employees can share sensitive information with external tools without knowing the implications for the organization.
Defining which applications are authorized, which documents can be used, and which should be kept off these platforms is part of a protection strategy. These provisions must be accompanied by training, supervision and clear responsibilities for those who use the tools.
Alonso also highlights that taking advantage of artificial intelligence requires having quality data, defined processes, prepared talent and ethical criteria to guide its implementation. Incorporating technology without developing these bases can limit its results and make it difficult for the benefits to be maintained in the long term.
From Álvarez’s perspective, there is also an opportunity to strengthen local technological capabilities and develop infrastructure that contributes to maintaining control over data. This approach would promote the Dominican digital ecosystem and expand the participation of local companies in the creation of technological solutions.
Protecting trust is protecting the business
Cybersecurity is part of the decisions that determine the ability of a company to compete, innovate and sustain its operations in an increasingly connected environment. Its value is not only found in the incidents it manages to avoid, but also in the continuity it guarantees and the trust it helps preserve.
For organizations, moving in this direction involves evaluating risks comprehensively, strengthening the security of their suppliers, preparing their collaborators and adopting technologies that allow them to anticipate threats without slowing down business development. That was one of the main conclusions of the recent Cybersecurity & Artificial Intelligence Summit 2026 organized by Mercado Media Network.
In a digital economy where operations depend on multiple systems and actors, protection can no longer be considered an isolated responsibility of the technology department. It is a task that involves the entire organization and directly influences its ability to maintain the trust of its customers, respond to market changes and grow sustainably.
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Source: revistamercado.do
