LeadingIT October 2020 Newsletter - Online Version

Chicagoland CybersecurITy Support

October 2020

Insights From Microsvoft New Data

Shows How The Coronavirus Is Accelerating Digital Transformation Of Cybersecurity

How Internet Access/Connection Affects Children Doing Remote Learning During The COVID-19 Pandemic

How To Ensure Your Remote Workforce Takes Personal Responsibility When It Comes to Cybersecurity

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Microsoft recently interviewed about 800 business leaders of top companies to make sense of the pandemic’s threat landscape. From financial implications to impact on staffing, they shared their sentiments of how cybersecurity will evolve in the wake of the pandemic.

The data indicated that phishing scams are significantly impacting businesses. We are also seeing companies increasing their hiring efforts and security budgets in response to coronavirus. Cloud-based technologies have also taken a predominant role in future tech investments – for obvious reasons.

Mitigating Threats New threats and scams have kept IT security teams on their toes.

Security leaders have reported the provision of uncompromised remote access to apps and tech resources as their number one challenge.

Before the pandemic, businesses banked on company-managed devices to secure their information technology networks. COVID-19, however, exposed these lines of defense as companies allowed remote access to different business apps.

Basic password authentication has also come under scrutiny with glaring limitations. Before the coronavirus, many institutions had invested in anti-phishing technology. Multi-factor authentication has since stood out as the leading security investment during the pandemic.

Insights From Microsoft New Data Shows How The Coronavirus Is Accelerating Digital Transformation Of Cybersecurity The early months of the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the value of cybersecurity in productive remote work. Today's security solutions do more than detect threats. They provide access to corporate resources, fostering collaboration, and productivity.

Cybercriminals made the most of pandemic themed lures to advanced

“

80%

of companies have hired new security professionals.” malware and scams around early March. Phishing attacks were also on the rise during this period. These attacks were significantly higher among businesses with on-premises resources compared to those who worked from the cloud. 50% of business leaders reported that phishing emails ranked high on security risk behavior.

Budget Implications Businesses reported increased budgets for security and compliance—58% and 65% of the interviewed business leaders. Budget pressure was considerably high for companies with resources mostly on-premises. These businesses are adopting integrated threat

protection to reduce short-term expenses. Users can drive efficiency with security solutions coming with self-help options.

The best technology can only do so much when it comes to mitigating threats. Companies are strengthening their human security expertise to stand against cyberattacks – 80% of companies have hired new security professionals.

We expect the paradigm's security to experience significant changes in response to accelerated digital transformation during the pandemic.

Look out for the following long-term cybersecurity changes: • Companies will base their digital empathy on security. Teams had to scale up virtual private networks to secure their remote work networks.

They relied on inclusive end-user experiences to improve collaboration and productivity. Many businesses have adopted multi-factor authentication to facilitate this paradigm shift.

• Threat Intelligence depends on diverse data sets. Cloud support helped Microsoft monitor 8 trillion daily threats from various feeds around the world. With cloud-based filters, human insights blended with automated tools to identify new risks before they reach clients.

• Business operations rely on cyber resilience. More organizations have secured their remote work resources with advanced cybersecurity systems. Evaluating the risk threshold can help businesses maintain

How Internet Access/Connection Affects Children Doing Remote Learning During The COVID-19 Pandemic

cyber resilience. With the cloud, they could also create comprehensive strategies with elaborate contingencies.

• Zero Trust solutions have gained traction. We witnessed top business making Zero Trust a priority in the onset of the pandemic. More business leaders (51%) have accelerated the adoption of these tech capabilities. Sooner or later, we'll see Zero Trust becoming the industry standard.

• Integrated security solutions are vital for sustained productivity.

Before the pandemic, protecting on-site servers was enough in maintaining consistent business operations. COVID-19 has, however, shown that cloud security is also imperative.

Drive Productivity With Robust Cybersecurity Managed Services Overall, the pandemic is accelerating cybersecurity's digital transformation. Companies can prioritize hiring and empowering diverse security talent to deploy practical threat intelligence tools.

Leaning on the cloud's power can also help institutions respond better to the security paradigm rising from remote work.

Internet connectivity affects children doing remote learning.

• Some kids without a stable internet connection are missing out on hours of learning. For example, kids in school districts with little to no internet access fall behind learners in school districts with fast and reliable networks.

• It affects some students' performance, as they cannot get quality education throughout. For example, network issues interrupt classes, and students struggle to ask questions during sessions.

• The disparity in internet connection may affect the learners' wellbeing. For example, they may struggle to understand and accept the new normal if their connectivity means they cannot learn, mainly if their friends have reliable and fast internet, and they are learning.

Tip: Another important consideration is the mental wellbeing of learners. Most young people do not understand why they cannot go to classrooms, interact with other learners, and need help to accept the change.

Helping kids with their wellbeing can help them enjoy the new learning experience.

How To Ensure Your Remote Workforce Takes Personal Responsibility When It Comes to Cybersecurity Companies have focused on increasing cybersecurity efforts as students and employees suddenly found themselves connecting from home

Understanding Policies It's clear that awareness alone is not enough to ensure that employees

during a pandemic. As an IT support company, we understand the

follow the best security practices, so what can companies do to increase

importance of both the technological and behavioral aspects of security.

compliance? First, they can understand some of the reasons why

We have helped organizations employ security measures such as web

employees do not follow these practices. Nearly a third of respondents

filtering and networking tools. However, hackers and scammers are all

to TrendMicro's survey reported using unofficial means to complete

too often successful at gaining access to data, installing malware such

tasks because they consider the solutions provided by their employers

as viruses on computers, and stealing money from victims. Often, it's

to be "nonsense." If companies can streamline processes to make them

the human element that makes it possible.

more efficient, utilize software that doesn't slow down Internet access,

Personal Responsibility

or rethink website design to improve the user experience, they may be able to increase compliance.

They say that people are the weakest link in an organization's security.

All the technological measures in the world cannot protect an

TrendMicro's Bharat Mistry also advises against a one-size-fits-all policy

organization's data, network, or device if users do not follow security

that punishes employees who follow protocols. Instead, we should

practices that were put in place for this exact reason. In fact, because

identify those who are most likely to flaunt security protocols and tailor

hackers and scammers recognize the risk of the human factor, they

custom solutions to increase compliance. These solutions may include

have focused on so-called social engineering tactics that manipulate

specific managed services or working more closely with the information

people into handing over data or credentials that would provide

technology team to emphasize the importance of security. Employees

unauthorized users access to that data rather than focusing solely on

may especially benefit from understanding that some actions pave the

security vulnerabilities. We can install firewalls to protect computers

way for data leaks and attacks that require more than a simple help

and servers, instruct staff to use VPNs when connecting remotely, and

desk ticket to resolve. They cause a loss of profits and productivity

offer secure cloud support, but all of this can be undone with the user's

—ransomware alone cost companies between $6.3 and $25 billion last

poor judgment. Clicking on links from unknown senders, even if the

year—and can damage a company's reputation. IT companies like ours

message has been marked as spam by a spam filtering program, can

wind up retrieving data and cleaning up code in addition to routine IT

lead to phishing attacks, downloading files from unsafe sources, and

support and email support. The personal risks are no less significant,

failing to protect sensitive data are all examples of human vulnerability.

with phishing attacks sometimes leading to identity theft that is difficult

While some companies may think that training would mitigate some

to undo and has long-lasting effects on credit scores, which can impact

security risks by increasing awareness of personal responsibility, this

future financial decisions.

isn't necessarily the case. A TrendMicro survey found that most users were aware of security risks and agreed that they shared responsibility

Increasing cybersecurity is not just a technological issue, and unless

to uphold security. Yet, these same respondents reported downloading

users understand and act on their personal responsibility, we will

unauthorized software to their company-provided devices, including

remain vulnerable.

60% of respondents who admitted to uploading work-related data to those apps. On top of that, others admit to completing work tasks on their personal devices.

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