Canadian Security Magazine

New (ISC)2 survey finds nearly half of cybersecurity respondents have been reassigned to IT amid COVID-19

By CS Staff   

News Data Security (ISC)2 COVID-19 Cybersecurity Pulse Survey (isc)² cybersecurity

47 per cent of respondents have been temporarily taken off security duties to assist with IT-related tasks as organizations move to remote work

On April 28, (ISC)² released the findings of a survey in which 256 cybersecurity professionals shared insights into their current work situations during the first several weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the (ISC)2 COVID-19 Cybersecurity Pulse Survey, 81 per cent of respondents, all responsible for securing their organizations’ digital assets, indicated that their job function has changed during the pandemic. 90 per cent indicated they themselves are now working remotely full-time.

“The goal of the survey was to take the pulse of the cybersecurity community as many of their organizations began to shift their employee bases and operations to remote work setups in March and April,” said Wesley Simpson, COO of (ISC)2, in a prepared statement. “While this was certainly not an in-depth study of the situation, it does provide a current snapshot of the issues and challenges our members may be facing during this unprecedented time. Sharing this information helps our members and other professionals in the field understand the challenges their peers are facing, and hopefully realize they are not alone, even if many of them are feeling isolated as they adjust to working from home.”

The (ISC)2 COVID-19 Cybersecurity Pulse Survey’s findings  include:

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  • 96 per cent of respondents’ organizations have closed physical work environments and moved to remote work-from-home policies for employees; nearly half (47 per cent) said this was the case for all employees, while 49 per cent indicated that some employees are working remotely
  • 23 per cent said cybersecurity incidents experienced by their organization have increased since transitioning to remote work – with some tracking as many as double the number of incidents
  • 81 per cent of respondents said their organizations view security as an essential function at this time
  • 47 per cent of respondents said they have been taken off some or all of their typical security duties to assist with other IT-related tasks, such as equipping a mobile workforce
  • 15 per cent of respondents indicated their information security teams do not have the resources they need to support a remote workforce, while another 34 per cent said they do, but only for the time being
  • 41 per cent said their organizations are utilizing best practices to secure their remote workforce, while another 50 per cent agreed, but admitted they could be doing more
  • Almost one-third (32 per cent) of respondents were aware of someone in their organization who has contracted COVID-19

Challenges Facing Cybersecurity Professionals

The survey asked respondents to share comments about the challenges they face during COVID-19. Some themes that came to light included a lack of hardware to support a larger number of remote workers, the struggle between organizational priorities for quick deployment of remote technology and the commensurate level of security to protect systems, and helping end users understand and abide by security policies outside the office.

One respondent commented, “Security at this point is a best effort scenario. Speed has become the primary decision-making factor. This has led to more than a few conversations about how doing it insecurely will result in a worse situation than not doing it at all.”

A Perfect Recipe for Cybercrime

One respondent summed up the factors that have contributed to an opportune situation for cybercriminals:

“COVID-19 hit us with all the necessary ingredients to fuel cybercrime: 100% work from home [WFH] before most organizations were really ready, chaos caused by technical issues plaguing workers not used to WFH, panic and desire to ‘know more’ and temptation to visit unverified websites in search of up-to-the-minute information, remote workforce technology supported by vendors driven by ‘new feature time to market’ and NOT security, employees taking over responsibilities for COVID-19 affected coworkers (unfamiliarity with process), and uncertainty regarding unexpected communication supposedly coming from their employers.”

Lessons Learned

Several respondents viewed the pandemic as an opportunity for future process improvement, however, as the following comments illustrate:

“With a majority of the workforce staying home we all will need to rethink our policies and the compromises we are willing to make.”

“People seem to be thinking more about security when they are working remotely, which is a good thing.”

“Employers now face the prospect of doing what they should have done long before: enact contingency plans for large-scale remote work due to natural or man-made disasters. Enabling remote work also has the benefit of appealing to potential employees when recruitment is a concern.”


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