Security priorities change as businesses adapt to 'new normal'

A new study from Check Point looks at how organizations have managed their cyber-security during the recent lockdowns and also their security priorities and concerns over the coming months as they move to the 'new normal.'

Over 86 percent of respondents say their biggest IT challenge during the pandemic was moving to mass remote working, and the biggest security concern (62 percent) was maintaining VPN capacity for staff.

Other areas of concern include preventing social engineering attacks (47 percent), and securing staff endpoints and home networks (52 percent). As restrictions begin to ease 75 percent of respondents say their offices are open again for limited numbers of employees. But on average, staff are still working four days out of five at home -- meaning the need to manage remote-working vulnerabilities and threats will persist for a long time.

While 65 percent of respondents say their company blocks unmanaged PCs from corporate VPNs, just 29 percent deploy endpoint security on employees' home PCs, and only 35 percent run compliance checks. Only 42 percent say their company invests in cyber-security training.

The main priority for 79 percent of respondents is tightening security and preventing attacks as employees continue to work flexibly from home. 43 percent state they plan to implement mobile security solutions, and 39 percent plan to consolidate their security estates to help eliminate 'blind spots' across their enlarged network perimeters.

"Organizations had to restructure their network and security fabrics almost overnight to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, and doing this inevitably meant that security gaps opened up, increasing their attack surface and creating new opportunities for criminals," says Ian Porteous -- regional director, security engineering for Check Point. "Now that we are moving towards a 'new normal' way of working as lockdowns lift globally, organizations need to close off those security gaps and secure their networks, from employees' home PCs and mobiles to the enterprise data center, with a holistic, end-to-end security architecture. The Covid-19 pandemic may be fading, but the cyber-crime pandemic it triggered is here to stay. However with the right approach to security, we can prevent attacks from causing widespread damage and disruption."

You can read more about the findings on the Check Point site.

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