Dive Brief:

• Trust is becoming one of the most important aspects of the chief information security officer role and the success of a modern company, according to Jeff Pollard, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. Trusted brands will gain market share and develop stronger, lasting relationships with customers and partners.
• Online adults are three times more likely to forgive brands they trust for product or service mistakes than those they don't trust, according to Pollard. Customers are more likely to forgive a particular brand for putting data at risk if they trust the company. Forrester surveyed 1,851 online adults during its 2021 Global Trust Imperative Survey in March. 
• CISOs are starting to become the most senior executive leader responsible for trust inside an enterprise, a trend that began in 2020, but took off this year, according to Pollard. At a number of companies, including Reddit, Red Canary, Cisco, DocuSign and Atlassian, CISO's are either adding the title of trust officer to their portfolio or ascending to that position within the company. 

Dive Insight:

The trust relationship has taken on an unprecedented level of importance inside modern companies as the COVID-19 pandemic and the current political climate has opened a dystopian debate over the meaning of truth and what people are willing to believe. 

For millions of people, the willingness to accept an agreed upon set of facts has become a moving target. For the CISO at a modern enterprise, the need to establish trust with customers, partners and even senior management within the same organization has become even more important. 

About 80% of online adults in the U.S. are willing to buy new products from a company they trust, even if the purchase is unrelated to products they have bought before, Pollard said.

"Imagine being able to guarantee launch window success because you are a trusted organization? That's coming — that's going to happen," Pollard said.

Trust in an organization can extend to partner relationships. The research also showed 72% of online adults in the U.S. that trust a brand were willing to trust affiliates of that brand. 

"Think about the fact that trust now becomes leverage for partnerships," he said.