(Image credit/Pixabay/Gerd Altmann)Fifty-one percent of UK business leaders say their shift to a cloud computing-based business model has saved their company from collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the headline from research by Centrify, a provider of identity-centric privileged access management solutions. Given this success, 60% of respondents are planning to substantially increase their use of cloud-based IT throughout and following the pandemic.

The research surveyed 200 senior business decision makers in large and medium-sized companies in the UK in September. It found that COVID-19 has exposed serious weaknesses in businesses’ IT security. Thirty-nine percent of decision-makers agree that the pandemic has exposed huge gaps in their cybersecurity armour. Conversely, this data point suggests that a majority of companies (61%) were ready for the security challenge posed by COVID-19 and shift to remote working.

Risk facing organisations

However, 60% of business leaders agreed that they are more aware of the risks facing their organisation. Particularly, after the recent surge in phishing attacks aimed at quarantined remote workers.

Worryingly, 56% of those surveyed said that remote working has made it harder to identify potential hackers impersonating staff. As a result, more than half (51%) say remote working has led to an increase in insider threats. This highlights a need for modern cybersecurity solutions that can limit access and privilege by segregating duties. In addition, there is a need to implement access request and approval workflows, and leveraging behaviour analytics based on machine learning technology.

Facing the security threats

(Image credit/LinkedIn/Andy Heather)
Andy Heather, VP at Centrify

According to Andy Heather, VP at Centrify, “Facing the security threats posed by COVID-19 continues to be no easy task. But fortunately business leaders have been rewarded for their trust in public cloud adoption.

Addressing this concern starts with adopting a cloud-ready privileged access management security solution to enforce least privilege. Enterprises should only grant administrative users just enough access to resources, just in time to do the job required. A modern approach to privileged access control enables businesses to continue remote operations across scalable multi-cloud environments. At the same time remaining confident that internal threats are flagged, blocked and neutralised.

Enterprise Times: What this means for business.

Business are attracted to the idea of migrating to the cloud to reduce complexity, cost, and management overhead. Cloud can also delivers cross-platform and cross-cloud solution capabilities. Needless to say, businesses who were already cloud based were better positioned to endure the impact of COVID-19. Enterprises now realise that many solutions are better run from the cloud, particularly to support remote working. This research endorses this trend with the majority of UK enterprises saying their shift to a cloud computing-based business model saved their company from collapse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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