From ensuring seamless operations while working from home to defending geopolitically used cyber exchanges, a lot has been written and shared in the last few months about cybersecurity during the COVID-19 era. Needless to deduct, these thoughts have dominated the consciousness of the cybersecurity industry.
All of this was surely necessary with the situation in mind but now the question is, what do we do in the long term? Has the time to think, on what COVID-19 means for cybersecurity in the future, arrived?
The answer is yes!
However, according to our experts, the long term view of cybersecurity can be defined by only one word: Flexibility.
Cyber-defense is just a part of the big picture
If we take a look at the world around us at the moment, the pandemic has changed the way organizations have conducted their business and our lives have changed drastically as well. Our interaction with others and with our own environment has seen a change along with it. Restaurants have become well-appointed delivery kitchens, cash transactions are slowing disappearing and online deliveries are seeing a boom. Entertainment and sports are now only being consumed digitally, while transportations and travel may never be the same again.
From a business perspective, some industries have adapted while some are struggling to such an extent that they might not survive, at the same time new sectors are being created from scratch. Physical offices have closed down, in some cases permanently. IT personnel have scrambled to relocate their centralized key assets to a more accessible cloud delivery model. The fabric of society has shifted beneath our feet with record levels of government intervention and furlough schemes in terms of the workforce.
An opportunity like no other
This chaos of change presents a unique opportunity to change the security as a blocker stigma and instead become enablers. The pandemic has changed the way we think, for businesses, it’s no longer about the survival of the fittest rather its survival of those who can adapt faster and securely.
When adapting to a post COVID world, if an organization is facing existential decisions over its business model, then cybersecurity cannot afford to get in the way. In such a situation, we need to ensure that the business can operate in an agile way and adapt to the changing trends of the new world. In practical terms, this may mean several changes that will help understand the dynamic nature of the business due to COVID, and to make sense of critical assets and risks that underpin it. This will bring security closer to business objectives.
Cybersecurity – A business enabler
This is more than a chance to reposition cybersecurity as a blocker, this is a chance to deliver an important message about cybersecurity being an active enabler. Those businesses that can adapt to this post COVID world securely will be well-positioned for sustainable competitive advantage, leading to long term success. There are practical steps that the cybersecurity team can take now to achieve this.
With the pandemic giving businesses an opportunity to reach out across the organizations by arranging one-on-one with the stakeholders in different verticals, outside the usual risk reporting lines. For example, their perception can be sought after with regards to the changes in the world, and what their expectations are when it comes to major trends and business moves in the post-COVID era. While building relationships has always been beneficial this can also be an opportunity to ensure that cybersecurity can contribute from the outset.
Flexibility should be added to the assessments by the security teams. The rapid change that has been brought by the pandemic will introduce vulnerabilities into the logic of business, technology, and the people that run the organization. We must adapt as we function since stopping the business to fix a situation will be deemed as dangerous task for the health of the brand and business.
The long term effects of COVID on business and world is highly unpredictable, however, the clear security advice that we should embed in our business is to be more flexible.
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