This is part 2 of the series -- which features favorite comments from top cybersecurity experts on their views and recommendations for security success in this post-COVID world. Read part 1 here.
Dana Tamir, VP Market Strategy, Silverfort
"Enabling remote working for employees who can’t physically come into the office is no longer a “nice to have” but a necessity. Organizations will have to implement solutions to enable secure access to corporate systems and resources, to ensure remote access doesn’t expose the organization to additional risk."
“Cybersecurity is synonymous with vigilance. Pre, during and post- COVID-19, we must all remain vigilant against hackers who are alive and well – and who are constantly evolving the way they attack. That much hasn’t changed.
To be successful post- COVID-19, however, organizations will need to improve their training on phishing attacks and improve their knowledge of the tools and processes that cybercriminals will be using to attack the perimeterless workforce. Organizations big and small will see an increased demand for workplace agility as some return to an office setting before others do, and cybersecurity needs to enable and protect that agility so organizations can move forward.
That means continuous security monitoring of all network traffic is a must – with a more distributed workforce than ever before, visibility into endpoint activity and encrypted traffic has to be part of your IT security playbook.”
Michael Morrison, CEO of CoreView
"With a newly transitioned remote workforce and a pandemic creating uncertain economic conditions, it’s more important than ever for businesses to strategically manage their Microsoft 365 licenses, help their employees get the full value of the purchased licenses to maximize productivity, and spend their cloud budget effectively. We analyzed data from more than five million employees around the world and found that 56% of all Microsoft Office licenses are unassigned, unused, oversized, or underutilized. Enterprises with an actionable view into their cloud environment will be able to save money and avoid security risks by canceling unneeded licenses and target specific groups of users to drive adoption of critical but underused services, such as Microsoft Teams.”
Will LaSala, Director of Security Solutions and Security Evangelist, OneSpan
“From a security perspective, the financial services and banking industry were one of the most heavily-impacted industries by the lockdown climate, which is fueling tremendous growth in digital banking capabilities. With everyone staying home, consumers had to conduct not only their day-to-day financial transactions but also more complex processes such as applying for a loan or opening a new account, entirely in digital channels. Both online traffic and the use of mobile banking applications is skyrocketing.
As consumers and business return to work and the economy restarts, we will see a continuation of this expansion in the digital channels. Consumers will not immediately go back to the old ways of doing business, nor do financial services want them to. Instead, we will see a push from all sides to increase the availability of completely digital channels for many new channels.
Likewise, hackers are shifting their focus towards these expanding channels and as a result, fraud and cybersecurity attacks are growing. Now is the time for financial institutions to strengthen the security of their digital and mobile offerings in order protect their customers as we enter the post-COVID era. Banks, as well as developers for high value apps used for banking and payments, should incorporate technologies like digital identity verification with facial recognition, behavioral biometrics, mobile e-signatures, adaptive authentication and mobile application shielding into the delivery of their products and services. This will enable them to build-in the strong security needed in order to provide important, digital banking services in the post-COVID world. More digital services will be the new norm, we must secure them before we start to see these attacks run rampant.”