Almost half of UK businesses’ cybersecurity unprepared for sustained remote working

June 25, 2020

Remote working has become the norm for many professionals since the outbreak of Covid-19, but many businesses’ digital defences are not prepared for their employees working from home for long.

In fact, 48% of the 200 business leaders polled by cybersecurity company Centrify said that their security infrastructure was not suitable for a fully remote working model.

At the same time, 65% believed that they will see an uptake in hack attacks and 75% had issued formal guidance or training to staff about how to operate securely whilst working from home. Moreover, half of the leaders surveyed said that they were planning to hire more IT professionals to boost their cybersecurity.

Furthermore, 59% of business decision makers said that outsourced IT and other third parties are being treated as an equal cybersecurity concern as 100% remote working employees.

“Acknowledging the security issues posed by remote working is essential during this difficult time,” said Andy Heather, VP at Centrify. “Unfortunately, remote workers including third-party contractors have been deemed a desirable target by hackers and cyber criminals, who are assuming that these employees have not been properly trained in, or protected by, the correct security measures in their transition to remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“However, it’s promising to see that so many businesses have adjusted security policies in response to this threat and are still considering bolstering security and IT staff. Fortunately, overhauling cybersecurity policy and procedure does not have to be overly strenuous or expensive – instead, it requires a cohesive effort from all colleagues and employees, strong password hygiene including the use of multi-factor authentication, and an identity-centric privileged access management solution to protect company data from breaches.”