Malware Most Concerning Threat Say 72% Businesses in new Bitglass Remote Work Security Report

The 2020 Remote Work Report by cloud security company Bitglass highlights the under-preparedness of companies’ security measures and the importance of implementing critical data security practices to thrive in the current working environment.

For industry giants like Microsoft and Google, the policies and infrastructure needed for remote work may already be in place, but as working from home becomes a universal norm, not all companies are prepared. As Tony AnscombeOpens a new window , Chief Security Evangelist at welivesecurity says on his blog, “For many smaller companies and organizations, remote working is probably limited to a few, and realistically mainly for email and other non-operational systems.”

The lack of proper security protocol implementation allows cybercriminals to launch sophisticated attacks and breach security vulnerabilities far more easily. For example, as per a Gartner postOpens a new window on the 7 security areas to focus on during COVID-19, ‘a cyberattack halted all urgent surgeries and rerouted critical patients in a busy hospital fighting COVID-19 in the Czech Republic. In Germany, a food delivery company fell victim to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. In the U.S., workers received a slew of phishing attacks after the passing of a government relief bill.’

Tech News: 630% Rise in External Attacks on Corporate Cloud Accounts, Reports McAfeeOpens a new window

The latest report from Bitglass – the 2020 Remote Work Report – examines how businesses have adjusted to support remote workers during the COVID-19 crisis. According to the study, 84% of organizations will continue to support remote work even after the pandemic. For instance, social media giant Twitter, informedOpens a new window its staff that they could work from home indefinitely as the company’s work-from-home measures have proved to be so successful during the lockdown.
But are companies able to do so securely? Out of the 84% that are willing to support remote working, most of them are not equipped to do so safely. The Bitglass research also found out that 41% of businesses have not extended secure access to remote workers yet. Moreover, 50% are citing the lack of proper equipment as the biggest impediment to doing so.

“This research indicates that many organizations are not implementing the security measures necessary to protect their data in the current business environment,” saidOpens a new window Anurag Kahol, CTO of Bitglass. “For example, while respondents said that the pandemic has accelerated the migration of user workflows and applications to the cloud, most are not employing cloud security solutions like single sign-on (SSO), data loss prevention, zero trust network access, or cloud access security brokers. On top of that, 84% of organizations reported that they are likely to continue to support remote work capabilities even after stay at home orders are lifted. To do this safely, they must prioritize securing data in any app, any device, anywhere in the world.”

Tech News: 62% Businesses Still Using Traditional Backup Tools, Finds Zerto ResearchOpens a new window

Some other findings of the report include:

• 72% of respondents said malware was their top threat vector concern
• When working from home, 68% of businesses said they were most concerned about file sharing, 47% said web applications and 45% pointed to video conferencing as a huge security threat.
• 77% of firms use anti-malware tools to secure remote work.
• 63% of respondents said that remote work was likely to impact their compliance with regulatory mandates; while 50% of them specifically named GDPR.

Let us know if you liked this news on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!