Devin Partida writes about cyber security and technology. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of ReHack.com.

Hyperautomation is the next step in digital transformation. This practice — which centers around business-driven, fast-paced, scalable and extensive automated systems — has grown popular for its efficiency and cost benefits, but that’s not all it can do. There are several security benefits of hyperautomation as well.

While hyperautomation is still relatively new, its potential is impressive. Here are a few of the most significant security benefits IT professionals should know.

Human error reduction

Perhaps hyperautomation’s most crucial security advantage is its impact on human error. Mistakes are many organizations’ most prominent security threats, with 95% of all cybersecurity issues stemming from human error. While training helps address this issue, the only way to truly stop it is to separate humans from sensitive parts of the process.

By nature, hyperautomation reduces human workers’ role in data-heavy daily operations. This emphasis on automation helps prevent mistakes that even the most seasoned and well-meaning employees can make. With fewer chances for errors, IT teams can be more confident in their technical safeguards’ abilities to stop breaches.

Improved response time

Another security benefit of hyperautomation is its speed. Automated systems can detect anything out of the ordinary a lot faster than a human can. Teams can then respond to potential security threats faster, improving their chances of successfully stopping a breach.

Automation and AI already have a proven track record for improving response times and consequently reducing breaches’ impact. On average, organizations using these technologies had 74-day shorter breach lifecycles and saved $3 million more than those that didn’t. As cyber crime continues to rise, that speed and efficacy will only become more crucial.

Increased visibility

Hyperautomation also improves teams’ visibility into their digital infrastructure. Process mapping and mining is one of seven critical components of hyperautomation, as organizations must understand their processes before they can automate them. After automating, they’ll gain even more transparency through automation’s consolidation and rapid reporting.

This visibility makes it easier to find and address vulnerabilities. It also lets teams see how scaling up or down might introduce new dependencies, affect access controls or otherwise impact their IT environments. They can then implement necessary controls and security features to stay secure despite a shifting landscape.

Higher automation accuracy and understanding

More than half of all organizations already automate some security processes and hyperautomation can take these tools further. While automation in singular systems can improve response times and reduce errors, limited access and visibility can hinder them. Because hyperautomation connects automated systems across workflows, it provides more context, improving these tools’ reliability.

With more information, automated security tools can better understand an IT environment, its vulnerabilities and people’s roles within it. That, in turn, improves breach detection and can enable things like dynamic role-based access controls.

Scalability

Hyperautomation can also improve cyber security by making security tools and processes more scalable. Rapid development and deployment is a core tenet of the hyperautomation philosophy. This emphasis on speed and adaptability in automation helps scale automated safeguards up or down more easily, minimizing periods where teams may be vulnerable as they change.

As organizations keep adopting new technologies, this quick scalability is critical. While 61% of IT executives say that their endpoints have increased in the past two years, just 33% are confident they can reduce sprawl. With such rapidly growing attack surfaces, teams need equally fast-growing security solutions, which hyperautomation enables.

Hyperautomation has many security benefits

Like any other technology movement, hyperautomation requires a careful, thoughtful approach to be effective and secure. If organizations approach it with the appropriate care and caution, it could bring some impressive security benefits.

Hyperautomation can make security incidents less likely and less impactful through several means. As security issues grow and IT teams become increasingly burdened, these advantages will look more and more attractive. Hyperautomation could become a critical security step for some organizations before long.

For more from Editor-in-Chief of Rehack.com, Devin Partida, click here. To receive cutting-edge cyber security news, exclusive interviews, high-minded expert analyses and leading security resources, please sign up for the CyberTalk.org newsletter.