Prioritize Cybersecurity as Your Organization Taps the Cloud The threat landscape is expanding rapidly as companies navigate challenges brought on by the pandemic.
By Scott Lundgren Edited by Bill Schulz
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Companies are spending record amounts on innovation with large investments being made in cloud-related technologies. In fact, Gartner predicts that 85% of organizations will be "cloud-first" by 2025.
While the cloud comes with the speed to innovate, a digital infrastructure opens the door to a new set of risks for businesses. IT teams are now tasked with securing hybrid workforces, while also protecting business-critical applications like HR apps for payroll and CRM apps for customer reporting.
Security leaders will continue to be challenged as companies fast-track digital transformation plans. If you're tapping the cloud, here's how to innovate and win.
Related: Protect Your Internet Browsing with VPNCity
Prioritizing security from the get-go
The benefits of the cloud are incredible, but we can't forget simple lessons such as multi-factor authentication, a secure password strategy and safe web browsing. We learned these simple steps years ago and it's important they remain today alongside new protocols that innovations call for. Appropriate planning also need to be taken into account - when the IT team installs new technology, the security team needs to ensure that precautions are taken early and quickly.
Related: Top 5 Strategies For Accelerating Digital Transformation
Employee turnover
The first year of the pandemic was about adapting IT and creating patch-work solutions amid a remote workforce. Now, it's about flexibility and re-thinking our IT departments to ensure continuity.
There is also massive risk associated with the current job turnover we're seeing, from new employees joining companies with limited security onboarding and workers departing companies while taking sensitive data with them.
Ten years ago when, say, an employee was onboarded remotely in India from the company headquarters' IT department in New York, there was no added layer of security for remote workers when it came to training them about precautions.
Traditional IT has evolved immensely from that point, but we still have to make sure that we have the right technologies in place that can empower employees to act appropriately and safely within our networks. These preventive measures will help lessen the blow of the turnover and hiring that we're seeing today.
Consolidation in the security industry
We want security precautions and tools to be a digestible topic so that they're rolled out automatically within organizations. The power of the cloud allows security vendors to innovate faster, consolidate more tools into a single platform and deploy more quickly amid today's remote workforce. For organizations, this means reduced cost of ownership, which is critical as IT budgets continue to modestly recover from the past two years.
Business leaders need to ensure security is always at the forefront. Once this is addressed, we'll all be in a better place to take on the challenges that 2022 continues to present and business resiliency will be within reach for all.
Related: How to Prioritize Online Security While Working From Home
