EXPERT OPINION
However , with the cloud came greater agility and choice for employees .
Shadow IT , the phenomenon of employees using applications of their own choosing to store and access company data outside the data centre ’ s four walls – on personal devices and online accounts – became a challenge to IT departments .
Fast-forward to 2020 , when at some stages a large number of enterprises in the Middle East have been working remotely and the four walls of the data centre have fallen , as far as many businesses are concerned . Some organisations found themselves supporting remote workers for the first time – many with employees who would not be working from company-issued laptops and smartphones . While figures vary across EMEA , a recent IBM survey of 2,000 new remote workers in the US found that over half ( 53 %) were using personal laptops .
From a cybersecurity perspective , this is a critical risk . Previously , the data centre was analogous to a fortress . Everything that went in or out was strictly monitored and the threat from external sources was low .
This is why one of the most well-known forms of cyberattack is a Trojan virus – one that tricks the victim into thinking they are receiving or opening a legitimate file , document , link , effectively inviting in the attacker . Now , not only have the gates of the digital fortress been flung wide open , the people who used to be inside are now distributed and every single one represents a possible entry point for a malicious threat . The attack vector hasn ’ t just increased , it ’ s exploded .
Increased threat vector
More than half of newly remote employees were not given new security policies and 45 % said they have not received training
90 % OF RESPONDENTS SAID THEY EXPECT THAT REMOTE WORK WILL INCREASE OVER THE NEXT DECADE .
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