The COVID pandemic of 2020 brought lots of changes to the way we function day-to-day. In many ways we’ve changed forever and in other ways we are just now starting to return to the “old normal”, but one of the changes which, in all probability, is set for permanency is our switch from working in the office to working at home. In fact, in 2020, 62% of Americans worked from home, including 49% who had never before done so. Although remote work has tons of perks for both employees and employers, it also comes with some unique challenges, such as increased risks to cybersecurity.
In early 2020, the FBI reported a 300% increase in cybercrime and attacks targeting remote workers increased by 5x within the first 6 weeks of quarantine. Unfortunately, the cyber attacks did not only affect employees as 20% of companies also experienced data breaches linked to remote workers. Cyberattacks of all kinds shot up to unprecedented levels in 2020. These attacks include phishing, up by 600%, ransomware, up by 148%, malware activity up by 128%, botnet traffic, up by 29%, and attacks on IOT devices up by 13%.
Although most companies are satisfied with their in-house security measures, the COVID pandemic rendered those security measures nearly obsolete as the majority of employees are no longer under that umbrella. The top security concerns about remote work are that personal devices may be more easily compromised than company devices; there are new difficulties managing new devices using remote work resources; and IT support and cybersecurity protections are not as effective for remote work or personal devices and networks.
Even while 60% of remote employees report having MFA security implemented by employers, 67% of companies still report having security breaches. MFA is almost a good security solution, but these protocols still only slow hackers down. Ultimately they are still easy to breach.
In the age of remote work, security must go a step further by removing passwords altogether. Beyond Identity offers cybersecurity with the use of cryptography and biometrics, among other things. Hackers are unable to hack passwords without a password to hack.
Passwordless security is the future of cybersecurity in our “new normal.”
Infographic Source: Beyond Identity