Telework and IT security: 84% of organizations want to continue working remotely

Although most of them are not enough tools to ensure the safety of this process.

In a recent report published by Bitglass, a data security services company, the vast majority of companies that have applied remote work methods during containment want to continue to operate in this way.

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The report also comes from a May 2020 study of 413 IT and cybersecurity professionals in the United States.The people who participated in this study are generally technical managers or professionals with experience in the various sectors outlined above, constituting for the study a balanced sample in terms of organizations, size and sector.

Even at the heart of the pandemic and containment, this report on the safety of remote work highlights the situation in which collaboration is addressed in terms of security, as well as the threats and challenges facing businesses. The problem being significant, the organizations have managed to do so well and get by so that they even want more. In fact, 84% of organizations, whether in the private and public sectors, whether for-profit or not, decide to continue to operate in telework mode. However, Bitglass experts believe that this can be dangerous for many of them as they do not have sufficient technical and material means to ensure the security of their infrastructure.

The data security firm determined following the survey that 41% of organizations took no precautions to increase the security of access to the network of their telecommuting employees. In addition, 50% of them acknowledged that they did not have the equipment to provide their employees with a safe working environment. Worse still, 305 percent of these organizations allow personal-use terminals to access applications normally controlled within the company.

When the issue of security is addressed as one of the major concerns of telework, 65% of professionals surveyed believe that it is first important to protect access to the network. Then comes the security of SaaS applications. The use of personal devices and the security it might be required to be is only the third priority of professionals. In terms of the main vectors of computer attacks, 72% of those surveyed indicated that malware was the greatest risk followed, with non-user access according to 59 percent of respondents.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Anurag Kahol, Bitglass's technical director, said: "This research indicates that many organizations are not implementing the necessary security measures to protect their data in today's business environment. For example, while interviewees reported that the pandemic has accelerated the migration of workflows and applications from users to the cloud, most do not use cloud security solutions such as single authentication, data loss prevention, zero-confidence network access, or security guards for cloud access. In addition, 84% of organizations said they will likely continue to support remote work capacity even after home work orders are lifted. To do this safely, they must prioritize data protection in any application, any device, anywhere in the world."

In summary, the main findings of this study include:

1- The attack vector most feared by respondents is 72% malware

2- Organizations care much more about file-sharing applications in the development of telecommuting. This was confirmed by 68% of respondents. Web applications are positioned in the second (recognized as a priority by 47% of respondents) place and video conferencing applications in the 3rd place that 45% would see in first place.

3- The most commonly used tools during telecommuting to secure collaboration are Anti-Malware software (77%). But on this side, it is worth noting an insufficient deployment of other security tools, in software used to prevent data loss or analyze user behavior.

4- 63% of respondents believe that telework is likely to undermine certain legal obligations, particularly compliance with the rules set out in the General Data Protection Regulation.

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