Rethinking cybersecurity priorities amid the coronavirus pandemic

With the majority of employees working from home, business executives have had to take a good look at setting up a foundation for efficient cybersecurity practices ASAP. 

• We shared with you a checklist to help with a pandemic plan; what security steps to take with work-from-home employees; and guidance for best cybersecurity practices as cyber criminals exploit the human element and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to their advantage.

What comes next is something that can be seen as a rainbow for after the storm, as we stand together in the face of uncertainty on how long COVID-19 will stay around and keep us (all) from being able to conduct business regularly (not to mention our day-to-day lives).

• Rethinking long-term cybersecurity priorities.

There are many reasons why this is already taking place.  Here are two of the most prominent ones.

• Reason 1: The global workforce is almost entirely working from home – this means employees are not only needing help with staying on top of security on their own after training and support has been given to them; but they also need to know how to use the technology they’re using, and what to do when or if it breaks down, and/or if it gives them any issues they can’t solve. 

• Prioritization 1: Therefore, IT professionals and/or teams (whether in-house or outsourced) are already being called to fulfill these two needs.  As this continues, the number of IT pros to the number of employees who need their help will highlight an area that requires attention, as not everyone understands tech to the extent needed to stay productive and secure without help.

• Reason 2: Budgets are being allocated to sustain a virtual workforce – this means spending in areas that ensure business can proceed as normal over the network (internally and externally) with all devices, technology, software, and hardware being used to conduct day-to-day operations over the network.

• Prioritization 2: Not every company had (or possibly has) a virtual private network (VPN) set up, in addition there’s the need to have enough bandwidth to support VPN and remote-desktop access (in this moment in time).  Also, let’s not forget the cloud, video conferencing, and file sharing, which are all in need to have a virtual workforce.

Essentially, now that COVID-19 has forced a digital workforce, the priorities that we see slowly coming forth (as a consequence of what it means to work remotely) can lead to a long-term sustainable, almost complete, holistic cybersecurity posture.  Holistic, because people, process and technology are being taken into consideration as the issues of working from home get addressed.

As every CIO knows, a holistic cybersecurity posture is something that is essential for very important reasons, but it always seems too hard to make it possible.  Without going into the challenges, let’s address the rethinking of cybersecurity priorities that is already taking place, with holistic cybersecurity in mind. 

Cybersecurity Culture

Thanks to having to immediately address cybersecurity with everyone that works at the company, you are already extending the opportunity of getting everyone onboard with a cybersecurity culture.  Keep doing this, and alongside, create a cybersecurity culture checklist.  This will help your employees to get used to, and not forget, good cyber hygiene while working from home and for when they get back to the office.

Business Continuity

You can make use of your pandemic plan to develop a business continuity one.  The two are similar, but with differences that look at how to face possible business interruptions for unexpected events such as natural catastrophes.  If you need help with a business continuity plan or a pandemic one, feel free to reach out.

Incident Response

The IT professionals who are already assisting employees working from home, as well as the internal office to continue operations are having to monitor the network on multiple levels.  Add to this day-to-day practice a guide.  Since the guide you create will include the steps and measures to dealing with alerts from within the office, as well as outside the office, your team has set up an incident response with eyes on all alerts.  They’ve also prioritized what to do, and by having to respond continuously to alerts, they will also have had the practice to continue doing the same when everything goes back to normal.

Security Assessments

In addition to having set up security tools to monitor your internal and external environments, you are also in need of assessing those environments from time to time, if you want to ensure security.  To make sure this is done, an in-depth overview of your environments is what you need to prioritize next.  Monthly assessments should be prioritized, but if possible, at this time particularly, even weekly.

Rethinking your cybersecurity priorities with a holistic posture in mind can hopefully help you look back at what you are being forced to do right now, as something not burdensome, but instead, as something that makes your business that much stronger (and more likely to succeed).

If there’s any area that you need assistance with, you can always schedule a free consultation with us.  Whatever questions you have, our security experts are here to help.

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Photo courtesy of Sergey Nivens