It’s tough to write about Covid-19. It’s tough to work in this mixed up, messed up Covid world. Things aren’t easy for anybody. But at least we’re all in this together.
Speaking of all being in this together, The Ponemon Institute just released a new report that paints a pretty good picture of what cybersecurity professionals have to deal with regularly. The white-paper, sponsored by Keeper Security, is pretty interesting and worth reading.
Things to know in advance, Ponemon interviewed 2,215 IT professionals for the report. Those professionals aren’t just based in the United States. It includes professionals from the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
So, without further adieu, I’ve taken the top 7 tidbits for your perusal:
- The Physical Security of a Remoter Worker’s Workspace is Top of Mind – About half of the respondents (47%) say risks are elevated by the lack of physical security in remote workers’ homes and other locations.
71% of the respondents believe that working remotely increases the likelihood of a data breach. 57% of the respondents believe they’re a prime target for such an attack.
- Access to Business-Critical Applications has Never Been More Exposed – Businesses love the cloud. Apps have been migrating to the cloud for years. Access to those apps has never been more important with everyone working remotely.
On average there are 51 business-related applications living in the cloud for an individual business at any given time
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)? Not for Everyone – 31% of the respondents said they’re not using ANY form of authentication (MFA or otherwise).
Of the 69% that do use a form of authentication, only 35% use MFA. - BYOD has NEVER Been More Popular – 67% of respondents said remote workers favor using their own devices while at home. That drastically reducing an organizations’ cybersecurity posture.
- Social Engineering Attacks Are on the Rise – 60% of respondents said they’ve been the target of a social engineering attack since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That tracks with what we’ve been seeing lately here at Integris. We’ve written about the rise in social engineering attacks a lot recently. You can read about that here.
We even compiled a guide on how you can become more familiar with social engineering attacks. (READ THE GUIDE)
- Malware and Ransomware Attacks Are on the Rise Too! – 51% of respondents said either malware or ransomware has invaded their organization since the start of the pandemic.
That also tracks with what we’ve seen recently here. We’ve written extensively on this topic as well. You can read some of those articles here.
- Budget and Talent Shortages Haven’t Improved – For years, one of the most common issues faced by any organization’s cybersecurity department has been a lack of both money and available talent.
The pandemic hasn’t made that any better. 45% of respondents said they felt their organization was adequately meeting their budgetary needs. Only 39% said their organization was adequately staffed to meet the cybersecurity demands currently being faced.
As I said above, the report is worth reading if you get a chance. You can use this link to give it a gander.
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