Security News > 2021 > September > Remote cybersecurity concerns and labor shortages are front and center in a new small business report
On Wednesday, Verizon released the results from a new survey, detailing sentiment among business leaders about the economic impacts of COVID-19, labor shortages, network security in the age of remote work and more.
In August 2021, 90% of business owners and decision-makers said they were very or somewhat concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on small U.S. businesses, a 2% decrease from August 2020, per Verizon.
At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, companies around the globe shifted to remote work virtually overnight and these new operations presented new logistical and security challenges for business leaders and IT teams.
In the last year, many decisionmakers have implemented new security and virtual collaboration tech and about one-third said they'd "Temporarily closed to allow for transitions to new systems or ways of working."
In recent months, a string of high-profile cyberattacks has reverberated across critical aspects of U.S. infrastructure, bringing conversations around network security front and center for business leaders.
Nearly 7 in 10 business decision-makers somewhat or strongly agreed that working from home has "Increased the potential for cybersecurity threats" at their company and 68% strongly or somewhat agreed that remote operations led their company to "Implement new cybersecurity practices and policies," according to the report.