Abstract

The rapid advancement of Information Technology (IT), including cloud computing, AI, and automation, has become central to digital transformation initiatives across industries. While such technologies promise increased efficiency and innovation, many organizations adopt them without fully understanding their long-term structural implications. This has led to rising concerns about IT system complexity, integration overload, and organizational vulnerability to cyberattacks (Schneier & Vance, 2025). Extant IS literature emphasizes the strategic value of IT adoption but tends to underplay its unintended consequences, especially the systemic complexity introduced by poorly governed or fragmented implementation. The relationship between IT advancement, system complexity, and cybersecurity risk remains undertheorized (Wang et al., 2023). As organizations struggle to maintain control over rapidly expanding digital infrastructures, they often become more exposed to cyber threats. This study draws on Complexity Theory and Sociotechnical Systems Theory to explain how technological advancement, in the absence of strategic coherence, generates emergent complexity in business processes and IT architecture. This complexity, in turn, undermines organizational cybersecurity readiness by expanding the attack surface, increasing the number of failure points, and reducing human oversight. The primary goal of this research is to conceptualize how IT-induced complexity contributes to cyber-vulnerability in modern organizations. Key guiding questions include: How does rapid and uncoordinated IT adoption introduce operational and architectural complexities? What is the pathway through which these complexities contribute to heightened cybersecurity risk? What governance or architectural principles could mitigate these risks? This is a conceptual study in its early phase. The next steps involve developing a theoretical model linking IT advancement, complexity dimensions (informational, procedural, and infrastructural), and cyber risk. Future empirical validation may employ case studies or surveys among IT and security managers in high tech or finance sectors. This study contributes to literature by shifting the focus from IT capability as an enabler of innovation to IT complexity as a risk factor in cybersecurity. It introduces a novel framework that integrates complexity theory into IT governance discourse and provides practical insights for organizations seeking to adopt emerging technologies responsibly without compromising cybersecurity posture.

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