At a time when global cybercrime costs are projected to exceed $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, product security expert Rianat Abbas says businesses that treat cybersecurity as a strategic investment rather than an operational expense will be better positioned to drive innovation, attract capital, and sustain growth.
Speaking at the 2025 One Tech World Conference, which drew more than 1,600 technology professionals from over 50 countries, Abbas argued that secure-by-design principles are no longer optional for firms seeking to compete in fast-changing markets.
“Every decision to innovate is also a decision to protect,” Abbas said. “Cybersecurity must be viewed as a growth partner. When done right, it protects intellectual p
roperty, ensures compliance readiness, and strengthens digital trust all of which are crucial for long-term business success.”
Her session, Innovation and Compliance in Cybersecurity: Balancing Technology and Regulation, reframed security and compliance as enablers of digital transformation.
Abbas said embedding security into product design from the outset accelerates time-to-market, reduces regulatory risk, and cuts post-incident recovery costs, benefits that directly improve a company’s bottom line and investor appeal.
Drawing from her experience leading secure product initiatives at Volkswagen Group, Plaqad, and now the African Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI-4AI), Abbas presented a four-part framework for integrating security into every stage of the innovation lifecycle.
The model emphasises proactive design, Zero Trust architecture adoption, and early alignment with evolving compliance standards, measures she said have proven to lower operational risk while increasing return on innovation.
She cited examples where businesses that embedded security early were able to scale faster into new markets, secure strategic partnerships, and gain regulatory approvals more smoothly. “Security-first thinking eliminates blind spots, reduces incident costs, and earns stakeholder trust from the start,” Abbas noted.
The economic logic, she said, is clear: in a global environment where trust is a currency, secure systems attract customers, partners, and investors alike. “The systems we’re building today will either earn trust or erode it and trust is the new competitive edge,” she said.
Industry feedback to her talk underscored its urgency. Delegates highlighted her framing of compliance as a driver of innovation as a strategic shift, particularly relevant for sectors under increasing digital and regulatory pressure.
As AI, blockchain, and IoT widen the attack surface and regulatory frameworks tighten, Abbas said corporate leaders must move cybersecurity out of the IT silo and into the boardroom. “Innovation without responsibility is not sustainable,” she concluded. “And responsibility, today, begins with how we build.”
