The Cyber-Aware Business Analyst: Mapping Customer Journeys with Security

Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) is all about enhancing the customer experience and getting more people engaged. However, because cyber threats are constantly changing and digital technology is evolving, adding security to CJM has become a business-critical necessity. This article changes the function of the Business Analyst (BA) by showing how they can find and reduce cybersecurity risks at every stage of the customer experience, thereby building customer confidence.

Introduction

In this age of data breaches, social engineering, and digital scams, customer journey mapping is no longer only the job of business and UX designers. BAs also need to think about the cybersecurity risks that each customer touchpoint faces, from the first contact to post-sale support, as every step of the journey is a possible security risk. We will look at a cybersecurity-focused approach to CJM that will help business analysts work better with security teams, include safe design principles, and promote trust as a key UX driver.

The Growing Threat Surface in Digital Journeys

Customer journeys these days are multichannel and data-heavy. They typically include sensitive transactions, user information, cloud-hosted applications, and more. With increased digital dependency comes an expanded threat surface such as phishing and spoofing, attackers pretend to be reputable brands to steal login information or install malware on a system or device. Credential Stuffing using stolen passwords on several sites, which typically leads to account breaches, session hijacking, where someone gets unauthorised access to devices or systems by intercepting or changing session tokens. Also, third-Party vulnerabilities through connection to unsafe external platforms that put the supply chain at risk are also a growing threat surface. As a result of this, it's very critical for BAs to not just map out what consumers do but also what may go wrong from a security point of view at every stage of the journey.

Key Cybersecurity Risks by Journey Phase

1.  Awareness and Discovery Phase: In this phase, the consumer learns about the company through digital marketing, search engines, social media, or third-party websites.

Cybersecurity Risks

• Ad fraud and malvertising where threat actors inject malicious code into digital ads or impersonate brand advertisements.

• Phishing on social media through fake brand accounts or postings that send people to phishing websites.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) poisoning: Malicious actors utilise black-hat methods to put phishing or malware-filled pages above real brand pages in search results.

BA Considerations

• Work with the brand and security teams to make sure that digital campaigns, third-party ad networks, and marketing plans are all safe.

• Use HTTPS domain validation and security pinning on all official digital properties to make sure that users' browsers and websites can communicate safely and verify each other.

• Support the deployment of threat intelligence services that can stop someone from pretending to be someone else on social media in real time.

2. Evaluation Phase: In this phase, the customer evaluates the product or service by visiting the website, reading reviews or interacting with chatbots or customer support.

Cybersecurity Risks

• Session Hijacking: when someone who isn't supposed to can see user sessions on the website.

• Insecure Web Applications: search, forms, or chatbots that have holes that may be used to hack them.

• Risks of third-party integration: Reviews, payment widgets, or plugins that are built in may make the system less secure.

BA Considerations

• Define requirements for digital content authentication checks using blockchain or hash validation.

• Requirements should include CAPTCHAs, scripts to stop bots, solid session management, and secure cookie flags.

• Push for security testing (such as Dynamic Application Security Testing, DAST) for all digital touchpoints.

•  Document and assess the risk impact of third-party software components.

3. Purchase Phase: In this phase, customer makes transaction through a digital channel

Cybersecurity Risks

• Payment Fraud using stolen payment data or card related attacks

• Data Interception and exposure of sensitive data, e.g. Personally Identifiable Information (PII), payment details etc. due to insufficient encryption.

• Credential Stuffing, use of leaked or breached login credentials to access user accounts.

BA Considerations

• Include encryption needs (such TLS 1.2+ and AES-256) in the system requirements.

• Make sure that every system that handles payment data follows PCI DSS rules.

• Recommend integration with fraud detection systems and multi-factor authentication (MFA) service.

4. Retention Phase: post-sale engagement through loyalty programs, email communications, account management or app usage.

Cybersecurity Risks

• Account Takeover (ATO) through exploitation of weak authentication mechanism or session flaws.

• Insider Threats through employees misusing access to customer data.

• Insecure APIs used for account management or mobile apps could lead to exposure of customer data.

BA Considerations

• Require role-based access controls (RBAC) and regular audits for internal systems.

• Advocate for API security testing and OAuth2-based secure authentication mechanism.

• Collaboration with DevOps and Security teams to integrate security in CI/CD pipelines.

5. Advocacy Phase: In this phase of the customer journey, customers have become brand advocates by leaving reviews, participating in referral programs or other engagement forums.

Cybersecurity Risks

• Social Engineering and deepfakes where attackers impersonate advocates to phish o mislead others.

• Data Leakage where personally identifiable information (PII) is revealed inadvertently in public content.

• Reputation damage from fake negative reviews or automated bots damaging brand perception.

BA Considerations

• Define moderation workflows and abuse reporting mechanisms for user-generated contents.

• Enforce data anonymization and content validation rules in public-facing platforms.

• Recommend digital watermarking or content authenticity verification features.

Cross-Phase Risks and Recommendations

1. Data Privacy and Compliance

• Ensuring alignment with GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regulations across the customer journey.

• Perform Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for new features or data collection points.

2. Identity and Access Management (IAM)

• Implement least privilege principles for both customers and internal users.

• Support Single Sign-On (SSO) and federated identity protocols.

3. Incident Response and Monitoring

• Include security logging and real-time threat detection capabilities in requirements.

• Ensure every journey touchpoint has defined incident response procedures.

Conclusion

It has become imperative for business analysts to champion security right from the inception of customer journey mapping of any product or service by identifying potential attack surfaces, threats, etc. They must advocate for secure design principles and ensure regulatory compliance. By embedding cybersecurity into CJM, business analysts can help their organisations to enhance trust, build resilience and reduce the risk of reputational and financial damages.

Author: Victoria Ogunsanya

Victoria is a skilled Cyber Security Professional with expertise in Information Security Audit, Governance Risk and compliance (GRC), Incident response and IT Service Delivery Management. She had over a decade experience in IT operations passionate about helping organisations drive security policies and strategies to align with their business objectives as well as protect their digital assets.