{"id":3669,"date":"2020-06-30T11:47:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T16:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/?p=3669"},"modified":"2020-06-30T11:47:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T16:47:04","slug":"how-security-leaders-can-make-the-most-out-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stratospherenetworks.com\/blog\/how-security-leaders-can-make-the-most-out-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"How Security Leaders Can Make the Most out of COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AWith Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases still on the rise as reported by the\u00a0World Health Organization (WHO)<\/a>, it’s understandable if you aren’t feeling particularly cheerful and optimistic about the present or future. Many of us have had our personal and professional lives completely upended by the pandemic. The ways we work, parent, grocery shop and otherwise go about our days have undergone radical transformations. Even with\u00a0all 50 states reopening<\/a>\u00a0their economies, it seems unlikely that life will ever be the same again.<\/p>\n

However, the impact COVID-19 has on our lives doesn’t have to be entirely negative. Former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill\u00a0often<\/a>\u00a0receives credit<\/a>\u00a0for coining the phrase, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Although Churchill wasn’t speaking specifically about a pandemic, that saying can certainly still apply to the current public health catastrophe. For CISOs and CIOs, this can serve as an opportunity to get the rest of your team on board with technologies and initiatives that they were reluctant to try out before, but that have become vital to maintain optimal security posture in the post-coronavirus world.<\/p>\n

The Impact of COVID-19 on IT Security<\/h2>\n

The biggest and most immediate change in corporate culture caused by the pandemic was the shift to\u00a0remote work arrangements<\/a>. From mid-March to mid-April, the portion of employed Americans who reported working remotely because of concerns about the novel coronavirus increased from 31 percent to 62 percent, according to\u00a0Gallup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many of the people who transitioned to working from home because of the pandemic aren’t exactly eager to get back to the office either: Only 26 percent told Gallup that they wanted to return to their workplaces after businesses and schools reopen. Prominent companies like Twitter and Facebook have announced their willingness to accommodate employees who want to keep working from home forever, according to the Forbes article “Here Are The Companies Leading The Work-From-Home Revolution<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Additionally, a couple months ago,\u00a0the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the United Kingdom\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)\u00a0issued an alert<\/a>\u00a0about cybercriminals seeking to exploit the public health crisis via\u00a0COVID-19-themed schemes<\/a>. Their tactics have included phishing emails, fraudulent websites and cyberattacks targeting vulnerabilities in remote work solutions, according to\u00a0Sophos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outbreak of coronavirus-related cyberattacks combined with the migration to work-from-home arrangements means companies looking to avoid data breaches must\u00a0adjust their approach to cybersecurity<\/a>\u00a0to match the new normal. It seems that many business leaders understand the need to invest in additional security measures to continue to combat evolving threats while accommodating remote workers: The majority (56 percent) of enterprise executives included in a\u00a0survey conducted by HFS Research<\/a>\u00a0said they expected to spend more on security (as a subset of IT investments) because of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Turning the Pandemic Into a Springboard for Security Solution Adoption<\/h2>\n

If your team has already accepted the fact that they need to embrace new tech and adjust their routines to succeed in a world drastically changed by COVID-19, this is your opportunity to get buy-in for cybersecurity solutions and projects that didn’t garner much support or interest before the current crisis. If your end users were skeptical that they really needed to adopt advanced IT security measures before the novel coronavirus became a problem, it should be much easier to illustrate the need for higher levels of protection now.<\/p>\n

For example, if your team previously wasn’t enthused about implementing\u00a0multi-factor authentication<\/a>, you could win them over by pointing out that your organization could use an extra layer of security for remote workers. Some other types of IT security measures that make sense for distributed teams include the following:<\/p>\n