With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, organizations around the globe were forced into a rapid transition to a remote workforce, with an augmented focus on collaborating and serving customers digitally. This of course gave rise to a rapid increase in demand for digital capabilities, products, and services.

The pandemic (and efforts to contain it) have obviously had enormous economic and operational consequences, and have influenced core aspects of the business environment. The response to the pandemic has also created new security vulnerabilities, with attackers seeking to exploit the gaps opened where telecommuting employees employ unsecure devices and networks. According to McKinsey Insights, this included threat actors who used known attack techniques to exploit people’s COVID-19-related fears. “For example, Google tallied more than 18 million malware and phishing emails related to the novel coronavirus on its service each day in April. It also reported identifying more than a dozen government-backed groups using COVID-19 themes for these attempts.”

Security Central to Operations in the “New Normal”

The pandemic response has highlighted the critical role that security plays in facilitating remote operations. As organizations reevaluate their processes and redesign architecture to accommodate the pandemic response, cybersecurity teams are becoming even more important; in fact, they represent the front line against opportunistic attackers.

Similarly, cybersecurity itself (as well as those who work in cybersecurity) can no longer be an afterthought, nor seen as a barrier to growth or a nuisance. Cybersecurity is a now a key player in operations, with teams within an organization carrying a sober and grave responsibility.

Last August, the security firm Malwarebytes released a report entitled Enduring from home: COVID-19’s impact on business security, which shone a light on how the transition has impacted security and how organizations can more effectively address the risks and vulnerabilities of a remote workforce. As a result of the coronavirus lockdown, approximately one-third of the respondents had to shift anywhere from 81% to 100% of their employees to remote working, and more than two-thirds of organizations moved 61% or more of their workforce to a work-from-home (WFH) mode.

However, “organizations failed to address certain areas that would’ve strengthened security amid the WFH shift,” according to TechRepublic. “Among those surveyed, 44% said they didn’t provide cybersecurity training focused on the potential threats of working from home, 45% didn’t analyze the security or privacy features in the software tools considered necessary for remote working, and 68% did not deploy a new antivirus solution for work-issued devices.”

A sobering statistic, indeed. IT leaders also reported myriad challenges in moving into the WFH modality, as reported by TechRepublic.  “A full 55% cited the need to train employees on how to securely and compliantly work at home as the top challenge. Some 53% mentioned the challenge of setting up work or personal devices with new software for employees to do their jobs remotely. And 51% pointed to the need to shift to a new, remote model of communication and/or collaboration among employees.”

A Logical Choice, All Things Considered

In the quest to get their houses in order, untold thousands of business owners, executives and IT managers are now more seriously and stringently assessing their data security needs. Many have come to the realization that in this “New Normal,” cybersecurity must be embedded into new processes and technologies as a strategic imperative.

Enter Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud security. The premier purveyor of cloud-based security infrastructure and services, Amazon is an organization that has become almost synonymous with all things digital. Thus, it makes sense that so many organizations are flocking to this tech giant for their wide array of business and data security solutions.

AWS is designed to help organizations build secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient infrastructure for your applications. Their “black belt” security experts continually monitor the AWS infrastructure and maintain their wide selection of innovative security services, which help you simplify meeting your own security and regulatory requirements.

With AWS, you control where your data is stored, who can access it, and what resources your organization is consuming at any given moment. Finally, automation on AWS allows you to reduce human configuration errors and give your team more time to focus on other work that’s critical to your business.

Overall, cybersecurity teams have performed well above expectations in fulfilling the dual mission of responding to vulnerabilities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and anticipating new risks. Now, it’s just up to stakeholders to set the appropriate wheels in motion.

Order of the Cipher is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) training company and a novel approach to training that combines theatrical presentation with proven teaching techniques. We’ve mastered Amazon Web Services, and we’ve perfected how to showcase the versatility and capability of AWS technology in a manner that provides real-world immersion experiences that prepare students to expertly navigate the AWS ecosystem.