Security lessons from the pandemic

The need for the digital transformation is becoming clear as the current pandemic is accelerating existing business and technology trends. Despite market uncertainty and tightening budgets, many companies are seeing improved productivity and cost savings through embracing remote working and cloud computing. They are recognising the value of being able to scale up and down the capacity based on customer demand and paying for only what they use rather than maintaining their own datacentres. Supporting staff and trusting them to do the right thing also pays off.

Security programmes must adapt accordingly. They should be agile and cater for this shift, helping people do their jobs better and more securely. Protecting remote workforce and your cloud infrastructure becomes a focus. It’s also a great opportunity to dust off incident response and business continuity plans to keep them relevant and in the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Work with your staff to explain the ways bad guys take advantage of media intense events for scams and fraud. Make it personal, use examples and relate to scenarios outside of the work context too. Secure their devices and know your shared responsibility model when it comes to cloud services. Backups, logging and monitoring, identity and access management are all important areas to consider. Overall, it’s a good time to review your risk logs and threat models and adjust your approach accordingly.

Photo by Chad Davis.