Only 41% of Cybersecurity Teams Can Securely Work Remotely

New research by ISACA has found that only 59% of cybersecurity teams are equipped to perform their jobs effectively while working from home.

The finding emerged from the recent COVID-19 Study in which more than 3700 IT audit, governance, and cybersecurity professionals from 123 countries were questioned about the impact of the global health crisis on their organizations and their own jobs.

Only 51% of technology professionals and leaders surveyed said they were “highly confident” that their cybersecurity teams were ready to detect and respond to the surge in cybersecurity attacks that has accompanied the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Just 59% said that their cybersecurity teams had the necessary tools and resources at home to perform their jobs effectively.

The survey, which was conducted in mid-April, found that the rapid mass transition to remote working triggered by lockdown measures imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 has made businesses more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats.

While 80% of organizations shared cyber-risk best practices for working at home as shelter-in-place orders began, 87% of respondents said the rapid transition to remote work had increased data protection and privacy risk.

This presents a problem, as 58% of respondents say threat actors are taking advantage of the pandemic to disrupt organizations, and 92% say cyber-attacks on individuals are increasing.

“Organizations are rapidly and aggressively moving toward new ways of doing business during this time, which is a very positive thing, but it can also lead to making compromises that can leave them vulnerable to threats,” said ISACA CEO David Samuelson.

“A surge in the number of remote workers means there is a greater attack surface. Remote work is critically important right now, so security has to be at the forefront along with employee education. ISACA professionals have an especially critical role to play in protecting their enterprises, customers and stakeholders during this pandemic.”

Questioned over the security of their jobs, 10% of respondents feared that they may be fired as a result of the health pandemic, and 1% of respondents had been furloughed.

On a positive note, the majority of respondents predicted normal business operations to resume by Q3 2020.