PRO+ Premium Content/Information Security

It's no exaggeration, and it might even be an understatement, to say that the COVID-19 pandemic forced an overnight transition to remote work for millions of workers. Even as some enterprises begin bringing staff back on site, an August 2020 Gallup poll found that one in four U.S. workers continues to work entirely from home. The shift has been just as jarring for security pros, who are trying to manage a horde of newly remote users -- and their potentially dangerous digital behaviors -- while also getting their bearings in the rapidly evolving threat landscape. New COVID-19 cybersecurity data suggests that the challenges these security teams face are considerable and are not going away anytime soon. "The more homebound employees struggle to access data and systems, the more they will attempt to use risky work-arounds," cautioned cybersecurity experts at McKinsey & Company. "Cybersecurity teams will need to secure work-from-home systems and test and scale VPNs and incident-response tools. In addition, they may wish to revisit ...