Remote Working

A new study from SafeGuard Cyber seeks to understand how businesses rate their own security and compliance risks in the new digital reality.

Respondents were asked to effectively grade their adaptations to date, say what gaps still exist, and how they are planning for the future. 31 percent of respondents report their entire business process has changed and is still evolving, while 26 percent say they’ve rushed certain projects that were scheduled for later.

Digital transformation initiatives have meant IT and operational technology (OT) networks becoming more interconnected and the switch to remote working has only accelerated this.

In response to this trend, OT security specialist Claroty has updated its platform to offer remote incident management as a fully integrated capability that spans the entire incident lifecycle.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many more organizations to adopt remote working. This in turn has led to a boom in the use of tools like Teams and Zoom to help employees communicate.

Securing those tools though presents some serious challenges ensuring that, for example, they aren't used, inadvertently or on purpose, to leak sensitive information.

While a vast majority of organizations have transitioned to remote work during the COVID-19 outbreak, only a third of IT security professionals described that transition as 'smooth' in a new survey.

The study from OneIdentity shows 62 percent of respondents say that cloud infrastructure is more important now than 12 months ago and 31 percent attribute this shift directly to COVID-19.

The switch to remote working has left many organizations lagging in productivity and revenue due to the deficiency of their remote access solutions.

A new report from Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) provider Perimeter 81 reveals that 19 percent of IT leaders surveyed say they often or always experience network performance and latency issues when using legacy remote access solutions while an additional 43 percent say they sometimes do.

Two new global studies from network specialist Cisco reveal an increase in consumer concern about data sharing during the pandemic and the security challenges organizations face supporting employees and customers in our remote-first world.

The reports also highlight the opportunities presented by the accelerated transition to a cloud-first, remote world that demands us to be secure, connected and productive from anywhere.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in the EU in May 2018 with the aim of giving individuals greater protection over how businesses use their data.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up new challenges and remaining compliant with the regulations in an age of remote working is one of them. We spoke to Brendan Kiely, managing director and co-founder of secure remote working specialist ThinScale Technology to discuss the implications of GDPR and the 'new normal'.

More than 80 percent of global employees do not want to return to the office full-time, despite 30 percent claiming that being isolated from their team was the biggest hindrance to productivity during lockdown.

A new study from mobile-centric security platform MobileIron also uncovers some worrying views around security, with 33 percent considering it to be low priority.

New research out today finds that 36 percent of companies weren't prepared to support the large-scale and abrupt transition to a remote workforce forced by COVID-19 measures.

The study, from managed cloud provider Navisite, of more than 100 executives and IT professionals in the US reveals that, as a result, 51 percent experienced IT pains during the transition process, with 29 percent reporting that they are still facing issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen large numbers of people adapting to new working patterns and ways of interacting.

AI-based transcription platform Otter.ai has seen a fivefold increase in demand in recent months and has transcribed 750 million minutes from over 25 million meetings. We spoke to Otter's founder Sam Liang to find out more about how it's helping to shape the future of work and education.

Surveyed during the lockdown period, 67 percent of security professionals report that they have caught employees engaging in unsafe or unproductive activity on the web.

The study of 300 cyber security professionals from cloud security company Censornet finds the most common bad behaviour is employees using streaming services at work such as Netflix or Amazon Prime (35 percent).

Digital transformation initiatives often focus on the customer experience. But in a world where remote working has become increasingly commonplace, employee experience is under the spotlight more than ever.

We spoke to Bill Hewitt, president and CEO of digital experience specialist Aternity, to find out more about the importance of making systems work for employees and how businesses can ensure that they do.

Between March and July 2020, almost half of companies experienced a data breach or security incident according to a new report, and half of these were caused by phishing attacks.

The study from Tessian also reveals that 82 percent of IT leaders think their company is at greater risk of phishing attacks when employees are working away from the office.

New research from enterprise search specialist Sinequa reveals that 61 percent of UK workers say it's harder to find the information they are looking for when working remotely.

The top reasons given for this are that systems are slower from home (25 percent), that information is scattered in lots of locations (24 percent) and because they can’t ask colleagues for an answer (24 percent).

While the pandemic has driven a shift to remote working, a new report from cyber security vendor Netwrix shows that that 85 percent of CISOs admit they've sacrificed cybersecurity to enable it to happen.

One in four organizations feels that they are exposed to more risks than before the pandemic. Of these, 63 percent report an increase in the frequency of cyberattacks and 60 percent have found new security gaps as a result of the transition to remote work.