PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE
� managed to get their employees fully set up within one week . To do so , 36 % made rapid investments in systems , while 21 % made use of existing systems that they already owned .
More than half ( 53 %) of UK survey respondents report that employee productivity increased as a result of widespread WFH , while only 12 % feel that productivity decreased .
Those of us who already were members of the remote workforce understand why : the ability to cut out distractions and focus on important work , the removal of long commutes that drain both time and energy and more flexible work hours that fit into other aspects of our lives are big contributors . This research confirms that for a large portion of desk workers , these same patterns hold true .
In fact , globally among C-level executives , the statistics are even more compelling , with 63 % stating that productivity has increased . Seventythree percent of UK respondents further state that the move from home increased their overall data security practices . Perhaps it is no surprise , therefore , that 65 % of UK respondents professionals expect their employees to work from home in greater numbers even after the pandemic is over .
Transitional consequences and a paradox of postures
The benefits of widespread remote work , however , comes at a cost . Thirtysix percent of UK companies had to delay revenue-generating activities for at least a month as they shifted IT focus to enabling secure WFH , and 45 % had to delay cybersecurity initiatives for a month or more for the same reason . These delays have real impact . Loss of revenue is perhaps the most easily apparent consequence , but the delay of cybersecurity initiatives could mean the difference between a breach occurring or not , potentially outweighing the cost of lost revenue many times over .
Although IT executives report feeling that overall security has increased , the research reveals important risk areas
We all know the sole driver for widescale WFH was to keep employees productive while protecting them from the spread of COVID-19 . Nonetheless , the data shows that this change drove significant enhancements to companies ’ overall performance .
that still remain . New attacks like Zoombombing have made plenty of headlines , but IT professionals are paying greater attention to more traditional threats like phishing and other malicious emails ( 47 % of respondents concerned , as opposed to only 33 % for Zoom bombing ).
Nonetheless , a mere 12 % of UK companies are using S / MIME certificates to identify and encrypt email ; below the global average of 17 %.
Nearly half of UK IT professionals also worry about the security of employees ’ home Wi-Fi networks ( 48 %), and more than a quarter express concern about employees ’ use of unknown personal computers or mobile devices ( 27 %).
Perhaps more worrying is the continued use of outdated , weak or inefficient user authentication methods . Strong , modern authentication technologies such as user
identity certificates ( 58 %) and biometrics ( 26 %) see less use than problematic authentication schemes , such as simple username and password ( 74 %) and hardware tokens ( 68 %).
Despite these clear vulnerabilities , twothirds of UK IT professionals believe their companies are investing ‘ the right
34 Issue 31 | www . intelligentciso . com