READY AND SECURE

RAQMIYAT DIRECTOR FOR CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE ABHIJIT MAHADIK SHARES VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO HOW SECURITY PRIORITIES HAVE SHIFTED DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND HOW ORGANISATIONS CAN STAY SECURE AND COMPETITIVE IN THE NEW NORMAL.

- ABHIJIT MAHADIK

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly transformed the way businesses operate today. How has this shift impacted security investments and strategies?

Post-COVID, we are seeing a major change in the way business is done. The new normal way of doing business is emerging, changing the entire cybersecurity threat landscape. Threats are also evolving as is the new normal in parallel. Investment priorities have also shifted as per the new normal. We believe CISOs and cybersecurity teams will continue to make various security niches high priorities for spending including perimeter security, as customers will continue to prioritise short-term spending on security for remote workers. Secondly, they will increase their focus on next-generation identity and access controls. Customers that had delayed adding MFA to legacy systems are now accelerating its adoption or are moving to cloud platforms.

As expected we will also see amplified investments on solutions around remote access as CISOs continue to support virtual workarounds for help-desk staff who would work in the office under normal circumstances. Finally, we expect that the cyber awareness training—that developed in-house and that delivered by an outside provider—that CISOs offer will be adapted both to cover remote-work situations and bring-your-own-device policies and to be delivered virtually.