Looking Ahead: The New Cybersecurity Reality in a Post Pandemic World

Anurag Lal, President and CEO of Infinite Convergence.

As the world begins to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, the hyper-digital, hyper-connected post-pandemic environment is creating the need for enterprises to re-evaluate their security posture and implement strategies to secure an evolving work from anywhere operational paradigm.

With the rapid transition to remote work during the height of the pandemic, many enterprises took an ad hoc approach to security that failed to scale with their remote working infrastructure. At the same time, cyberthreats and cybersecurity gaps posed new risks to enterprise mission-critical data. Consider that:

• Cybercrime reports quadrupled during the pandemic according the FBI
• Supporting remote working became the biggest security challenge for 71% of organizations
• Malware attacks such as ransomware increased during the pandemic, with 50% of all companies surveyed by Acronis reporting they were targeted at least once a week
• More intrusion attempts occurred in the first six months of 2020 than in all of 2019

Over one year later, COVID-19 has created a new reality where security is now table stakes for supporting organizational agility, innovation and resilience. Enterprises are increasingly recognizing that securing remote working is a critical part of this. A Check Point survey of 600 IT professionals found that 61% of respondents cited securing remote working as the leading security priority through 2023.

Securing remote working should start with eliminating security gaps in collaboration tools. To do this, enterprises should adopt a security posture of zero trust when it comes to unsecure consumer-grade collaboration tools like WhatsApp. Why? Because organizations allowing employees to use these apps are putting mission-critical data, compliance and privacy at risk.

Supporting remote workers to enable work from anywhere does not mean enterprises have to compromise on security to facilitate collaboration and communication. In this area, the best line of cyber defense for enterprises is NetSfere – the gold standard for enterprise communication and collaboration. Netsfere’s mobile messaging platform is built from the ground up for the enterprise with no compromise security, encryption and enterprise control. Most recently, NetSfere was included in a 451 Research report that highlighted the risks of the latest WhatsApp update, including our platform as a recommended secure solution.

Taking a no compromise stance when it comes to security, privacy and compliance is what it will take for enterprises to become more cyber resilient. In the post-pandemic reality, this cyber resiliency is foundational to protecting organizational agility, innovation and business continuity.

The World Economic Forum highlighted the importance of leaders taking a systemic approach to security while also transforming their businesses noting: “the pandemic presents an opportunity for full-blown innovation, a dramatic shift in perspective and the adoption of safe and resilient operating processes. The intensity and emphasis an organization brings to its cybersecurity strategy will determine if the opportunity adds to bottom lines – or turns into a business disaster.”