When it comes to Data protection, we used to talk about securing the perimeter with firewalls, VPNs, cybersecurity training for employees, to prevent data leaks - remember those days?? Well, these days, things are a little different as we now have remote working to contend with. As a result, Zero Trust has crept in and tilted the formula for Data security and securing network perimeters is no longer effective.

Last year was a tough one for schools, local, and state governments. Not simply because of COVID-19, which forced every local government and school to navigate a pandemic, but also because the pandemic brought with it a different set of dangers. While local governments and schools were trying to figure out remote learning, remote work, and how to run public meetings safely and effectively online, cybercriminals took advantage of the fact that the remote world is new to most small governments.

The exploitation of traditional remote access technologies is reaching new records. That, in a nutshell, is the main finding of Nuspire’s Threat Landscape Report Q1 2021. The report, sourced from 90 billion traffic logs during Q1 2021, looks at a range of events such as malware activity, botnet activity, exploitation activity, and remote access. The remote access section probably best illustrates the risks posed by the sudden shift to remote working.

If you are new to the security world, it is fair to ask yourself, “Isn’t access to data and systems always conditional? Isn’t it always granted to someone who has access to the credentials (ID and password)?” True enough, but in totality, the approach to managing access encompasses a broader spectrum of privacy policies. These policies include a mix of different strategies that can be applied based on an organization’s security vulnerabilities.

In summer 2020, as it became abundantly clear that remote working in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was here to stay, Netskope surveyed more than 400 end-users in the US from across many industries, including telecommunications, IT, government healthcare, finance, nonprofit, and education, about their thoughts related to remote working.

Last year was an especially stressful time for healthcare systems. Not only were emergency rooms overwhelmed by patients, a number of them were also hit by system-crippling cyberattacks. According to Comparitech, in 2020 alone, 92 ransomware attacks affected over 600 healthcare organizations, exposing more than 18 million patient records. These attacks brought operations to a standstill for days or weeks at a time, costing the healthcare industry an estimated $20.8 billion.

Thanks to the growing availability of vaccines and immunization campaigns in multiple countries, the world is starting to see a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. We are eager to return to a new normal, being aware that some changes will be permanent, or if not permanent will strongly characterize the next years.

Without a doubt, digital transformation accelerated amid the pandemic and made it possible for employees to work remotely. However, it also intensified the threat landscape created by malicious attackers who jumped on the first opportunity to attack the more vulnerable home networks. As remote working becomes the new norm, it is paramount to have an agile infrastructure and team for security. Companies need to manage and orchestrate appropriate remediation activities carefully.