As the DACH region begins to slowly ease restrictions on social distancing, a month-long period of working from home has begun to come to an end. In that time, we’ve seen a rise in the spread of coronavirus-related malware alongside tools to facilitate remote work.
With 70% of all IT services already connected to the cloud, digitisation has been proven to be a key industry goal amongst the DACH states. So, where does the region go next with regards to digitisation? Below, we look at 5 post-pandemic digitisation predictions!
The pandemic will accelerate the pace of digital transformation
According to a study, 70% of DACH respondents expect the coronavirus pandemic to accelerate the pace of digitisation. As remote working has become commonplace, organisations have had to quickly adapt to a workplace divided by distance and network, regardless of how prepared they might be.
At the user-level, the use of communication and collaboration tools such as Zoom & Microsoft Teams has risen greatly to ensure the smooth running of company operations – with Microsoft reporting a 37.5% jump in users at the start of the pandemic.
However, as convenient as these tools may be, they also widen the surface for attack. ‘Zoom Bombing’ has become enough of a security threat that the government organisations began warning users of potential breaches.
Industries will benefit once the pandemic is over
The same study also found that 42% of Germanophone entrepreneurs believe that industry will benefit economically once the crisis is over. On the other hand, 19% of DACH decision-makers believe that the pandemic will have a negative long-term impact on the digital economy.
A forced shift to remote work has meant companies have had to invest valuable resources into ensuring they can run digitally – adequately preparing them for the future of working life. Unfortunately, only the future knows whether the security risks are worth the convenience.
The DACH threat landscape will become more complex
Capgemini found that 35.3% of DACH IT security experts’ budgets go to digitisation. As Boards dedicate more of their budgets to cyber securing their infrastructure, a post-pandemic threat landscape might look significantly more dangerous.
In fact, 88.2% of decision-makers believe that the IT landscape has already become more complex as a result of digitisation. Security Boulevard reported a 125% spike in cyber attacks on Germany’s food retail services as a result of working from home.
As Lisa Davies, Head of Corporate Security at Redox states, “Since many of the security controls and tools used by non-distributed companies depend on being on the local network, they can’t do [many] things remotely,” Davies said. “These companies have found it more difficult to update, monitor logs etc unless the device is on the local network, so when employees take them home, they are in the dark.”
Data protection will become more important
A rise in pandemic-related malware has meant that attempts to breach employee credentials have been at the forefront of cyber security during the pandemic period. However, only 26% of DACH IT security professionals believe data protection & security will become more important going forward.
Issues related to data are often linked to a lack of training. If a team of employees are properly trained on data protection & governance best practise, challenges associated with phishing are reduced. Rouzbeh Barzegar, Group Cybersecurity Office (GCSO), Cyber Culture & Training at Fresenius will be providing an in-depth case study on ‘Building a Human Firewall – Our Journey Towards a Cyber Culture’ tackling exactly the issue of the human factor in IT security at the upcoming DACHsec Virtual IT security conference!
Working from home will be more accepted
85% of surveyed DACH respondents believe working from home will become more accepted post-pandemic. A further 71% believe Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc will be more important due to the remote nature of work.
As covered earlier, worries associated with the security implications of working from home are yet to be remedied. Though security frameworks might not have yet adjusted to a change in work culture, the spread of the coronavirus has presented IT security professionals with a hurdle that they must overcome.
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