Building security into the DNA of every project

The 2001 'Gap Year' seemed just another trite analyst headline last January. It has now become IT's answer to The Mousetrap: it just wants to run and run.

So now is a good time to think about what kind of gap we are dealing with. There is a gulf between where we are now and, given recent technological advances, where we ought to be. We have reached a stage in the history of IT development where we need to reassess our thinking.

Analyst Richard Holway is right when he talks about the sector reaching maturity. Economically, we have gone beyond the stage of non-stop, exponential growth. But growing up also means accepting the responsibilities that come with adulthood.

One of the industry's great tests will be security, in every sense. When most of us use the term, it tends to be narrow and defensive: the means of dealing with a specific threat.

But it is far better to think of security in a broader sense, as an enabler. It should be about creating confidence and trust among customers and suppliers. It ought to be a matter of course, in the way that it has become for the mature automobile industry.

Motor vehicle executives have been forced to accept it as a fundamental part of their business, only they call it safety.

A combination of customer pressure, the law and changing social attitudes has made it so. Today's advanced anti-impact designs, braking systems, airbags and so on have not only made cars safer, they have made them feel safer. As a result, we remain a car culture.

A sustainable mass market needs effort. Building confidence and trust is fundamental to the development of a remote working culture, or a mass e-commerce market. Security needs to be built in to the DNA of every project.

New thinking needs to come from the global software giants, the marketers and the IT security industry, but also from politicians, lawyers and the media.

The UK needs innovation, but achieving our potential is no longer simply a question of technology. It is a question of trust.