This is a call to action for everyone attending the RSA Conference this coming week.
We stand at a critical juncture. Providers must urgently reprioritize security, placing it equal to or above launching new products. ‘Secure and resilient by design’ must go beyond slogans—it requires continuous, demonstrable evidence that controls are working effectively, not simply relying on annual compliance checks. Customers should be afforded the benefit of secure by default configurations, transparency to risks, and management of the controls they need to operate safely within a SaaS delivery model. The ecosystem must address trustworthy integration. There are some solutions available today, like confidential computing, customer self-hosting, and bring your own cloud, which all give organizations stronger controls to protect their data while enabling them to benefit from SaaS solutions. Â
We must establish new security principles and implement robust controls that enable the swift adoption of cloud services while protecting customers from their providers' vulnerabilities. Traditional measures like network segmentation, tiering, and protocol termination were durable in legacy principles but may no longer be viable today in a SaaS integration model. Instead, we need sophisticated authorization methods, advanced detection capabilities, and proactive measures to prevent the abuse of interconnected systems.
The most effective way to begin change is to reject these integration models without better solutions. I hope you’ll join me in recognizing this challenge and responding decisively, collaboratively, and immediately.
Patrick Opet, Chief Information Security Officer, JPMorganChase