According to the (ISC)2 COVID-19 Cybersecurity Pulse Survey, around half of security professionals have been taken off security duties to assist with IT-related tasks despite attacks during the pandemic doubling.
Looking into this issue for Digital Journal is David Grout, CTO for EMEA at FireEye.
Grout states that: “The shift of many workers to a working-from-home status is a test for security teams. IT are trying to deploy the same level of security to their remote workers as they would in the office.” This places pressures and complications upon IT departments and it can mean that less attention can be paid to cybersecurity matters.
Referring to the recently compiled data, Grout says: “In a recent report by ISC(2), 41 percent of cybersecurity professionals said their organisations are utilizing best practices to secure their remote workforce.” However, more tellingly, close to 50 percent of those working in IT said that their resources were stretched and they acknowledged that they sould be doing more in terms of protecting systems from cyberattacks.
The reason why this shift in duties has occurred, Grout says, is “because in many cases this is the first time all of their employees are having to work from home.” This results in many resources being streteched.
In terms of an appropriate response, Grout recommends: “Security teams should test remote access of employees to assess the effectiveness of their security, despite being separated.”
