Cybersecurity and sustainability: The twin pillars of resilient growth

A secure green future is not a slogan; it is a practical roadmap for any country that wants prosperity to last. As societies digitise everything from banking and energy to healthcare and education, two questions must be asked together, not separately: Does this system protect people's data and livelihoods, and does it minimise harm to the environment? 

If the answer to either is "no," progress will stall. Every breach erodes public trust and slows adoption. Every power-hungry server and pile of e-waste undermines climate goals and drains budgets. The way forward is to link sustainability and cybersecurity from day one — use less, protect more, and earn trust with every service we deliver.

We often treat "green" and "secure" as different projects with different owners. In reality, they rise and fall together. A major outage wastes electricity and human time, triggers crash recoveries, and forces duplicated work. A cyberattack can drive emergency data transfers, rushed hardware purchases, and premature device replacement — all of which carry a carbon cost. 

Poorly designed systems push us to run more machines than we need, and to keep them longer than we should. When we design technology to be efficient, resilient, and privacy-respecting by default, we cut costs, reduce emissions, and make it safer for citizens and businesses to live and work online.

Infrastructure is the quiet foundation of this agenda. Greener data centres, cleaner power, and modern networks are not just environmental choices; they are resilience choices. Right-sizing capacity, improving cooling, and running on more renewable energy reduce bills and keep services stable during shocks. 

At the same time, strong identity controls, network segmentation, encryption, and continuous monitoring keep essential workloads safe without adding unnecessary complexity. Fewer machines and simpler architectures mean fewer blind spots for attackers. When countries invest in efficient, well-secured digital infrastructure, they unlock growth that is both reliable and responsible.

The benefits become real when people use services every day. For a farmer receiving a payment on a mobile wallet, a parent booking a clinic visit, a student attending a virtual class, or a small shop reconciling accounts, reliability and security are not technical terms — they are the difference between inclusion and exclusion. If systems are slow, fragile, or unsafe, people will abandon them for cash, paper, and queues. 

The answer is straightforward: build security into the experience instead of bolting it on at the end. Keep language simple. Offer multi-factor logins that work on basic phones. Explain what data is collected and why. Provide visible help when things go wrong. When people feel protected, adoption grows; when adoption grows, greener infrastructure economics improve.

Procurement is a powerful lever that often gets overlooked. Sustainable procurement should include security criteria from the first page of every tender, and security procurement should include energy and lifecycle criteria with equal weight. Buyers should ask vendors to prove two things over the life of a solution: how much power it will consume and how well it will protect against misuse. Contracts should expect secure-by-default settings, timely patching, transparent software bills of materials, and plans for end-of-life. 

On the other side of the lifecycle, policies must require secure data wiping and responsible recycling so retired devices do not return as privacy risks or environmental hazards. These may sound procedural, but they are deeply human: people deserve confidence that their information remains safe from the first use of a device to its final disposal.

Small and medium-sized enterprises deserve special attention because they power most economies yet rarely have large security or sustainability teams. They do not need glossy strategies; they need practical help that works on day one. Preconfigured "hardened" devices, automatic updates, affordable cloud backup, basic monitoring dashboards, and helplines that speak in plain language can raise the baseline quickly. 

Shared services — such as a sector-wide virtual CISO, pooled incident response teams, or a common training academy — let many firms benefit from expertise they could not afford on their own. The greener we want a digital economy to be, the more we should simplify security for the businesses that keep it running.

People are the multiplier. Countries need operators who can run efficient data centres, developers who code with both security and energy in mind, procurement officers who can read safety and sustainability specs, teachers who protect student data, nurses who handle digital records with care, and citizens who know the basics of staying safe online. 

This is not only about advanced degrees; it is about practical, job-ready training for everyday roles. A national skills program that connects cybersecurity, energy efficiency, and data ethics in one curriculum — rather than three separate ones — would pay for itself through fewer incidents, lower bills, and higher public confidence.

Measurement keeps everyone honest. Leaders should track a small set of indicators that link security and sustainability instead of treating them as separate scorecards. Time to detect and contain incidents, the share of critical systems with strong authentication, the energy efficiency of key facilities, the percentage of workloads running on cleaner power, and secure e-waste retirement rates are all metrics that matter to people and budgets. 

Publishing progress creates accountability. Celebrating reductions in both risk and energy use creates momentum. When boards and ministries see that better security lowers operating costs and emissions, investment becomes easier to justify. When the public sees services that respect privacy and withstand shocks, trust grows.

Preparedness must also reflect the world as it is. Climate events and cyber incidents often arrive together. Floods strain power and telecoms; criminals exploit confusion. A modern continuity plan assumes this overlap. It places critical workloads in multiple zones, drills recovery like fire safety, and keeps multiple channels — text messages, community radio, apps, and call centres — ready to deliver verified information to people who need it most. No citizen should be cut off from essential services because a storm hit and a server failed on the same day.

Finance and policy can accelerate the journey. Incentives that reward both lower emissions and higher security maturity align public money with public outcomes. Clear, risk-based regulations help organisations focus on doing the right things in the right order. Standards bodies can harmonise expectations across borders so vendors build once and comply everywhere, lowering costs for everyone. 

Public procurement can lead by example, signalling to the market that secure and sustainable solutions win. None of this requires inventing a new rulebook; it requires choosing and applying the best of what already works.

New technologies will shape the path, and they should be adopted with intention. Artificial intelligence can help detect anomalies faster and optimise energy use, but it must respect privacy and avoid bias. Edge computing can reduce data movement and latency, but it needs strong device security and update mechanisms. 

Cloud services can consolidate workloads on efficient platforms, but they require shared-responsibility models that are understood and managed. The point is not to chase trends; it is to pick tools that measurably reduce risk and waste.

International cooperation is an advantage, not a luxury. Threats do not stop at borders, and neither do heatwaves or storms. Sharing playbooks, lessons learned, incident data, and training materials saves time and money. Regional partnerships can coordinate crisis communications, mutual aid for large incidents, and joint investments in common capabilities like secure digital identity or sector-wide monitoring. Collaboration turns isolated progress into collective resilience.

A secure green future is built one choice at a time: the server we right-size, the login we strengthen, the device we recycle well, the renewable kilowatt we procure, the honest metric we publish. None of these choices requires heroics. 

They require intent, consistency, and the humility to learn from mistakes. Suppose countries weave that intent into policy, procurement, engineering, and everyday behaviour. In that case, they will leave their children a digital world that is not only smarter, but kinder — to the planet and to the people who live on it. That is a future any nation can embrace, and it is within reach now.

B M Zahid ul Haque is a CISO and Global Cyber Digital Transformation adviser. The author can be reached at bmzahidul.haque@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.