Many companies are struggling to enforce WFH security

The breakout of Covid-19, as well as the ensuing rush to remote working, led to a power struggle in the newly constituted decentralized workplace. On the one hand, remote work was convenient and comfortable, but it also posed a threat to network security.

Many security professionals turned a blind eye to the fact that in the early days of the epidemic, when companies were primarily concerned with keeping their operations running, personnel abandoned security best practices to do the task as quickly as possible.

Despite this, two years after the outbreak began; organizations are still working to improve their cybersecurity posture.

Palo Alto Networks researchers discovered that most respondents (51 percent) struggle to maintain comprehensive network security, while nearly two-thirds (61 percent) struggle to provide the necessary remote security to support their remote workers after polling more than 3,000 enterprise information technology professionals involved in information surveillance, network operations, and application development.

Furthermore, more than half (53%) of firms that prioritized remote access over security are now vulnerable to major threats. As a result of unchecked acceptable use policy violations and unauthorized program usage.

Cloud security

Choosing convenience is not only common among remote and hybrid employees, but it also appears to be a sort of open secret. More than one-third (35%) of respondents stated that their staff either evaded or purposefully deactivated the remote security measures they put in place.

However, with remote and hybrid working becoming more popular, and the threat of a new lockdown looming as a result of the Delta version, companies do not expect to see the bulk of their employees return to the office anytime soon.

In fact, over two-thirds (62 percent) of respondents are exploring a hybrid workforce solution in the long run, which implies they'll need to devise a new perimeter solution for data protection.

The cloud appears to have established itself as a feasible answer, with 71 percent of respondents expecting their security to be primarily or entirely on the cloud during the next 24 months.

 

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