Page 111 - Cyber Defense eMagazine for July 2020

Post COVID-19: Cloud, Remote Work and BYOD Security

Predictions

By Anurag Kahol, CTO and co-founder, Bitglass

Cloud adoption has already been growing rapidly, but we’ll see a sharp increase in adoption in
2020 as a result of the global pandemic.

Recent events have impacted businesses and schools all around the world, causing them to shift to
remote work wherever possible. Cloud adoption gives employees and students the freedom to operate
from the safety of their homes by granting remote access to needed data and services. However, even
before the outbreak, cloud adoption was outpacing the adoption of the tools needed to properly protect
data in cloud environments. In 2019, 86% of organizations deployed cloud-based tools, but a mere 34%
made use of single sign-on (SSO), a basic but critical capability for authenticating users and securing
access to corporate cloud environments. This statistic suggests deeper underlying cloud security issues
within organizations and indicates that data breaches will continue to arise around the world.

The shift to widespread remote work also increases the likelihood of insider threats.

Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigation Report found that approximately 34% of breaches involved
internal actors. Additionally, a recent survey conducted on IT professionals about insider threats revealed
that only half of organizations provide user training regarding insider threats. While protecting data from
malicious external actors is typically top of mind for most organizations, the fact remains that they must
also defend against employees--whether they are malicious or merely careless.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –July 2020 Edition 111
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