Security News > 2021 > April > A rush to remote working leaving businesses vulnerable to cybercriminals

The COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to quickly support remote working practices, often without proper security measures in place.

Forty-nine percent of businesses surveyed stressed that changes made to remote working practices during lockdown adversely affected their company's cybersecurity.

Interestingly, even though 40 percent of businesses surveyed recognized that mobile devices are their company's biggest IT security threat, 45 percent of them knowingly sacrificed the security of mobile devices to "Get the job done" and 24 percent sacrificed the security of mobile devices to facilitate their response to restrictions put in place due to the pandemic.

"While businesses focused their efforts elsewhere, cybercriminals saw a wealth of new opportunities to strike. With the rise of the remote workforce and the spike in mobile device usage, the threat landscape changed, which for organizations, means there is a greater need to hone in on mobile security to protect themselves and those they serve."

According to the report, 70 percent of those that had seen remote working grow following the introduction of pandemic restrictions expected it to fall again afterward.

52 percent of those surveyed said that small and medium-sized businesses are more of a target than larger enterprises but even though this is the case, 59 percent of small and medium-sized businesses had sacrificed security with 22 percent suffering a mobile compromise.

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