The past year has brought cybersecurity front and center as work-from-home became the norm and the average person had to become better equipped at keeping sensitive data safe and secure. Despite these security friendly cultural and societal shifts, a new survey of tech professionals reveals we might not be quite up to par with best cybersecurity practices.
Tech news website TechRepublic reports that the survey from the Thales Group shows security teams across a wide international range of companies have generally been having difficulty adjusting to the new cybersecurity demands of the COVID-19 era. This means security teams have not been brought up to speed on ever-evolving cybersecurity protocols — from lack of modern infrastructure needed to defend their firms from hacks to improper training in current programs and software.
The extensive report found 20 percent of respondents said their security systems were ready for a sudden shift to the cloud as the pandemic altered overnight how companies handled their workflows. The survey also revealed 82 percent of respondents were concerned about security risks posed by the push for at-home work and 44 percent said they feared their firms’ systems were not equipped to keep data generated and transferred from home-based employees secure.
A need to embrace cloud computing
This doesn’t mean the majority of firms have security teams that are lacking in talent. It’s quite the opposite. Instead, the report reveals that these cybersecurity professionals just haven’t been given the appropriate tools fast enough to handle this changing world.
“Technologies such as encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA) have not reached saturation levels such that the majority of applications and data are fully protected,” TechRepublic cites in a passage from the report.
One of the main cybersecurity realities that has emerged during COVID-19 is the need to embrace cloud computing. As we continue to normalize working from home — with many workplaces turning to hybrid home-and-office models — the cloud will only continue to be a necessity.
The Thales Group found that just 17 percent of respondents said more than 50 percent of sensitive data hosted on the cloud is encrypted at their firms. If you zero in further, 24 percent reported having full knowledge of where their data is even stored in the first place while 45 percent say their teams have clearly defined company-wide cloud protocols.
What this means is there is a lot of work left to do.
The Thales report lays it out clearly — everyone at a firm needs to be on the same page when it comes to cybersecurity: “Senior executives need to ensure that they obtain a more complete understanding of the levels of risk and attack activity that their front-line staff are experiencing. They can't make effective strategy and security investment decisions when perspectives across the organization aren't aligned."