Today’s modern working environment has never been more difficult to manage - mobile and cloud-based apps are no longer the bane of an IT managers’ existence and the protests about the unchecked onslaught of ‘shadow IT’ are now fading into the past.
A Snapshot of modern working today
Cloud based apps are now the standard modus operandi for modern organisations, especially those that have adapted to and accepted the post pandemic ‘new realities’.
Users now require seamless connectivity from all locations and reliable, secure access to all applications at all times.
The user experience has now moved definitively from being a mere measure of how easy technology is to use, to now being a core factor in determining whether companies are going to have motivated, effective and therefore successful staff who are able to translate their experiences into positive CX.
The key to this is not several but one central collaboration tool for remote working. In addition to things like dial-tone being added to MS Teams meetings, the ability to retain existing phone numbers as well as proactive call quality monitoring.
But enabling this level of access and usability in a secure way is no easy task.
In fact it’s becoming too hard for all but the biggest companies with deep enough pockets to hire dedicated technology experts who are able to constantly man the ever-expanding threat surface that has now emerged.
Security-as-a-Service
Just as more and more organisations are looking for off-premise, cloud-based services to handle their growing number of core business functions, security-as-a-service is the next important cloud trend.
Every technology manager, and increasingly every senior executive now understands the stakes in getting IT security right. And by extension they know what needs to be done, and what needs to stop in order to achieve it.
As you’ve read in previous posts, Zero Trust is now the benchmark for effective cyber security in today’s modern and evolving professional environment. And that means many things.
On the one hand, of course you can’t trust cyber criminals and state actors. Accept these criminals are doing everything they can, including applying the best tools available to disrupt and extract valuable information from your business to achieve their aims.
But you also can’t trust your own staff, well at least with cyber security anyway.
As most of us know, the vast majority of cyber-attacks occur via email, typically in the form of ‘phishing’, whereby someone is pretending to be from a trusted source and seeking to acquire sensitive information such as user names and passwords in order to penetrate business systems.
Many of the biggest cyber-attacks reported recently have occurred in this way, including the spate of ransomware incidences across Australia, the US and other countries.
So zero trust comes into play when it comes to assuming that your staff are aware of all the current security risks today. Your staff now require more sophisticated training, and better guidance when it comes to identifying and reporting suspicious activity - especially as we adjust to the new normal of WFH with more staff isolated from colleagues.
Likewise, business partners and suppliers need to be treated with the same degree of vigilance.
One weak link in the chain can lead to dire consequences, which means it’s more important than ever to partner with a best-of-breed security specialist to provide that peace of mind you need to keep running and growing your business without the distraction and worry of everything being jeopardised – even destroyed – by a malicious or criminal actor.