Kaspersky has given some Information Technology recommendations that will help businesses stay protected in 2021, as the world continues on the catalyse shift from the corporate perimeter concept to micro-office security certification.
The global cybersecurity company believes that the recommendations are centred around the fact that Outsourcing of IT and cybersecurity functions will be crucial to solve expertise shortages and save budgets going into 2021.
“To coordinate managed service providers along with using multiple cloud services, cloud security and management skills will become a ‘must-have’. These and other cybersecurity challenges and trends will be among those that businesses will have to manage this year,” said Kaspersky in its recent report titled “Plugging the gaps: 2021 corporate IT security predictions”.
According to Kaspersky, a shift to remote work, financial constraints due to economic recession and the growth of cyberthreats due to the global pandemic will affect the day-to-day role of cybersecurity professionals in 2021. But understanding the challenges and perceiving opportunities in IT and IT security management is key for companies to maintain their protection.
The four recommendations as highlighted by Kaspersky are:
- Protecting the perimeter is no longer enough – home office assessment and certification will be needed. There should be tools to scan the level of security in a workplace – from the presence of software vulnerabilities to connecting to an unreliable or unprotected Wi-Fi hotspot. It will also require wider adoption of VPN, privileged access management, multifactor authentication systems, the implementation of stricter monitoring, and the updating of existing contingency and emergency plans.
- Transition to a service model will enable required levels of IT and IT security with lower investments. According to Kaspersky’s survey, seven-in-10 (72%) of businesses in the META region said they already plan to use a managed service provider (MSP) or managed security service provider (MSSP) in the next 12-months¹. This is for good reason as the service model helps to minimise capital investments and transition business costs from CapEx to OpEx.
- Training for internal IT security specialists should incorporate management skills. Cybersecurity professions split into very narrow specialisations, meaning that hiring staff for each specific role may be too expensive. This is where outsourcing can help plug the gap. However, businesses that outsource key cybersecurity components still need to focus on developing management skills for their in-house teams to handle those outsourced functions.
- There will be an increased reliance on cloud services, making dedicated management and protection measures necessary. The survey showed that in 2020, employees in 91% of enterprises and 95% of SMBs in the META region used non-corporate software and cloud services such as social networks, messengers or other applications. This is unlikely to change when staff return to the office. To ensure that any corporate data is kept under control, better visibility over cloud access will be necessary. IT security managers will need to align themselves with this cloud paradigm and develop skills for cloud management and protection.
