Palmore noted that while the COVID-19 pandemic has forced some businesses to close and others to migrate to remote work environments, it hasn’t stopped organizations’ need to collaborate or to pursue ambitious digital transformation projects. On the contrary, 85 percent of organizations have accelerated those efforts this year, according to research by McKinsey.
That’s created an additional need for security. Palmore cited an IDC survey in which half of the respondents said their spending priorities for security solutions have increased since the start of the pandemic; only 7 percent said security spending is less of a priority.
That growing attention to security has come about partly because of the increase in remote work, but the nature of cyber adversaries hasn’t really changed, he said. For many years, the main worries have been advanced persistent threats, malicious nation-states, so-called “hacktivists” who are motivated a political cause, and insider threats.
At the same time, while public sector, healthcare and financial services organizations continue to be the most heavily affected by cybersecurity attacks, small businesses are now also being targeted by…
