Remote work is going right into a new age: millions of workers adapting their way of life, from 9-to-5 jobs in offices and long commutes to their homes. However, the omnipresent cyber threats –not only malware and phishing but also data leaks, network intrusions, and persistent attacks– have been growing and adapting as well. This way, endpoints that used to be safe are inhabiting insecure network environments.
These are the main topics of our new industry report, called Shift: Status Of The Remote Work Cybersecurity Landscape, created and researched by our team of security professionals and data analysts.
In Shift, we tried to discover the main concerns of security professionals in the United States and the UK regarding this new remote security scenario. For this effect, we partnered with our friends at Vanson Bourne, who helped us in performing an exhaustive survey to 300 IT managers, system administrators, and C-Level executives.
We hope the data compiled in Shift may be useful in decision-making processes regarding remote workers, new security infrastructure or training, cybersecurity providers, and even investment inside your organization.
What's in the report?
The first installment of Shift brings to the table two main lines of research: Remote Work, and Cybersecurity in the context of remote work.
Remote Work
We can't deny that 2020 was a year of deep changes, and the paradigm of work was no exception. As we delve deeper into 2021, we decided to trace a line to identify what was the standing point for remote workers, analyzing how big was the remote cloud before the COVID–19 pandemic started (spoiler: it was huge).
We also analyzed the predicted percentage of workers that are staying remote when the pandemic ends: an incredible 43%. We're sure the data isn't true to every organization and employer, but we are certain that most companies are going to stay in the trend as much as they can.
Cybersecurity, Before And Now
The coronavirus pandemic isn't over; there is no "after" yet. As big companies are being hit by persistent threats and provider vulnerabilities, a large percentage of organizations have been scrambling to protect themselves against cyberattacks.
In the report, we compared and contrasted the main concerns of security professionals to study the evolution of threats year to year. Part of our survey also focused on understanding the levels of preparedness against cybersecurity threats and the reasons behind them. For example, the use of home connections, the reduced visibility to maintain security compliance, and the IT staff being completely overwhelmed, were the top three concerns.
Countermeasures, Policies, and Investment
Our report isn't entirely focused on the problems, but also delves into the most sought-after solutions to these issues in this new remote environment. Information security is an ever-changing industry, and all organizations have been implementing different countermeasures. The growth of endpoint security products and services is a sign of the times, as well as VPN services and solutions related to identity and access management.
However, having security solutions is nothing without proper training and policies. We discovered that most organizations have training in cybersecurity, but at the same time, most surveyed managers don't trust in the knowledge their employees have about it. We're not entirely sure what's the road your organization has to take, but you may this discrepancy as a sign to question the methods you use to train your workers in cybersec.
Read The Complete Report Now
You can access these statistics –and much more– by downloading the Shift report on our dedicated site. As we said, we hope it proves useful when making any decision regarding your remote workers and cybersecurity in this difficult context.
Norman Gutiérrez is our Security Researcher at Prey, one of the leading companies in the security and mobility industry, with more than 8 million users worldwide. In addition to this, Norm is Prey's Content and Communication Specialist, and our Infosec ambassador. Norm has worked for several tech media outlets such as FayerWayer and Publimetro, among others. In his free time, Norman enjoys videogames, cool gadgets, music, and fun board games.