Covid-19 pandemic brought an increasing amount of cybersecurity threats and led to increased demand in the industry. It is expected that in 2021 the trend for remote working will continue, even in the post-pandemic world. Employees will continue to have the ability and flexibility to work remotely, as the world is not going back to the way things were before the coronavirus outbreak.
This means that businesses and organizations of all sizes will have to continue shifting towards digital transformation and cloud services and continue to invest and define their cyber defenses. Organizations must be able to respond to various non-information security-related threats as they can impact how an organization operates.
A recent study conducted by Cisco interviewed 3 000 IT leaders and decision-makers from across the world. According to the results, in 2021, even though some parts of the teams will return to the physical offices, remote work will continue for the better part of the employees. 46% of the US respondents report that half of their employees will most likely continue to work from home even after businesses have returned to normal.
There has been a faster change in digital change due to Covid-19. Senior IT and security managers are the ones that have to help their organizations to shift to secure remote working practices.
Cybersecurity will be an even bigger concern in 2021 – according to the same Cisco report, 85% of US respondents said that cybersecurity is more important now than it was before the pandemic.
The reason is that when the pandemic hit, so did hackers and cyber attackers. 61% of all responders said their organizations saw 25% or more cyber threats since the coronavirus outbreak. Many companies of all sizes are already investing more in cybersecurity, and in 2021, as remote work is going to stay, they need to ensure a solid working environment. Organizations need to think strategically about cybersecurity and how to protect their data, workers, and equipment beyond the wall for the corporate buildings.
In 2021, to secure a remote workforce will require a different mindset and an expanded perimeter, which means significant new investments in IT systems and infrastructure. Because businesses needed to adapt quickly to enable their employees to work remotely when the pandemic hit, the number of cyber threats and attacks increased as hackers were looking for security holes.
Today, businesses understand more than evet the importance of cybersecurity and the need to prioritize IT budgets.
But while cybersecurity will be a more important priority for many businesses in 2021, other issues will remain. Such as the skills gap in cybersecurity, which means that there are more jobs opened in cybersecurity than candidates to fill them.
This means that companies that are looking to fill security roles will have a smaller pool of candidates to choose from. The shortage of IT and cybersecurity experts have been ongoing, and with the coronavirus pandemic, it has become clear that the problem is no more to be tolerated. Organizations will need to find cybersecurity professionals and staff with skills in cloud services, which are currently more widespread because of remote working.
