Remote working has accelerated the erosion of the traditional corporate perimeter, generating new IT security challenges that CISOs must know how to address
Ivanti Inc., the automation platform that helps make every IT connection smarter and more secure, announced the results of a survey that reveals how the rise of the Everywhere Enterprise has shifted CISO priorities from network protection to reducing mobile security risks. Nearly nine in ten CISOs surveyed (87%) agree that mobile devices have become the centerpiece of their cybersecurity strategies. Four in five CISOs (80%) said passwords are no longer effective at protecting company data from the increase in hacker attacks that harm remote workers and mobile devices.
The research, which involved 400 CISOs across the EMEA area (also interviewing Italian companies, from any sector, with sizes of 500 employees and above), found that 82% of those interviewed agreed on the fact that remote working has accelerated the disappearance of the traditional network perimeter, developing multiple new challenges for IT security. Today, the main challenges that CISOs face are related to ensuring that only trusted users, devices, networks and applications can access company data. In detail:
- Nearly half of respondents (45%) highlighted employees using unsecured Wi-Fi to access company resources as one of the top IT security challenges that emerged with the pandemic.
- Two-fifths (40%) of CISOs cited employees using their own devices to access company data as a major IT security concern.
- A third (33%) highlighted employees using unauthorized applications to access company data as a major threat to IT security.
While at the start of the pandemic, nearly all CISOs (93%) said they had effective solutions in place to enable the unexpected shift to remote work, nearly the same percentage (92%) also highlighted the need for additional IT security measures to enable remote workers to effectively manage the new mobile threat landscape. Looking ahead, nearly two-thirds (64%) of CISOs plan to invest in mobile threat detection software. Additionally, more than half (58%) noted that improving customer experience, remote application authentication (57%) and moving critical business applications to the cloud (52%) will be top priorities this year.
“The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for CISOs to ensure that working anywhere, on any device, is as secure as working from the office on a company-owned laptop,” he said Nigel Seddon, VP Emea West di IVantti. "The progressive development of the Everywhere Enterprise - where IT infrastructures are located everywhere and distributed employees must be able to access company data wherever they are located - has radically changed the role of the CISO, bringing the security of mobile devices into the spotlight. Today, CISOs must place greater emphasis on the implementation, security and optimization of mobile work environments."
“Every CISO should urgently adopt a Zero Trust security strategy by ensuring only authorized users can access company data, investing in automation technologies that discover, manage, protect and support all company endpoints, devices and data, everywhere” he continues Seddon. "They must start from the assumption that corporate networks have already been compromised and leverage innovative technologies capable of proactively detecting threats, also adopting self-healing and self-protecting devices. To further reduce the attack surface, CISOs should implement passwordless authentication, also ensuring remote workers benefit from a secure and seamless User Experience."
To download the complete survey data, to consult on the Ivanti website.
