CIO OPINION resulted in greater emphasis on the quality of IT and telecommunications ( ICT ).
However , the number of cyberattacks in the region has increased , with 80 % of organizations affected by ransomware attacks in 2021 . APAC countries such as Indonesia , Japan and Singapore experienced the sharpest increase in attack activity till the middle of the year .
While there has been progress in safeguarding against cyberthreats , the cybersecurity battle is far from over . Unfortunately , as businesses go back to the office in some capacity , these unique remote problems will remain .
What have we learned from security issues caused by remote working
While working from home does have its merits , such as lower costs for businesses , this meteoric rise has led to some worrying IT security issues . These include :
• Cloud transition . Since the pandemic , remote access solutions are preferred , and organizations moved critical business processes to the cloud . However , if the appropriate security solutions are not adopted , increasing reliance on the cloud and creating agility in the cloud could result in security vulnerabilities being exposed . 55 % of executives in Singapore believe that attacks on cloud service providers could potentially have a negative to a significantly negative impact on their organization .
PKI can help secure the cloud and provide strong authentication and operational integrity at scale .
• Email phishing . Email phishing during the pandemic skyrocketed and continues to be a challenge as attackers find new creative ways to scam users . There is an increased priority to train workers and prepare them to recognize and know how to deal with threats since the pandemic and to develop best practices for secure email access .
• Varying remote devices . Mobile devices need their own unique security protection . But organizations are finding it a challenge to protect mobile devices from cybersecurity issues since 70 % of remote workers in Singapore are using personal devices for work . A critical first step to resolving this is to deploy effective mobile device management ( MDM ) policy .
• No office-based cybersecurity . Companies are more vulnerable when their staff can ’ t use office IT security measures , like firewalls . Organizations should use tools to boost security and provide remote workers with secure VPN access .
• Protecting passwords . Employees should be trained on password policy best practices and
With many organizations embracing the convenience of electronic documents , authenticating document signatures and content becomes crucial .
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