A hybrid workforce is a challenge to organisations as 61% of respondents to a survey said they struggle to provide the necessary remote security to support work-from-home capabilities, said Palo Alto Networks recently.
That’s according to results of the vendor’s recently released The State of Hybrid Workforce Security 2021 report, based on a survey of of more than 3,000 enterprise IT professionals in multiple markets involved in information security, network operations and application development.
In addition, 51% of survey respondents stated they have difficulty in maintaining comprehensive network security.
The immediate shift to remote work—a need arising from the pandemic— turned network access and network security into equally high, yet competing, priorities for network and security professionals, said Palo Alto Networks.
Ultimately, network access emerged the winner, the firm noted, adding that many leaders fear that shortcuts were taken that now put their organisations at higher risk.
Survey highlights
- 48% of organisations admitted to compromising security and increasing security risk through lax enforcement of security policies and allowing employees more leeway than what was normally acceptable.
- 53% of organisations who prioritised remote access over security are now exposed to significant security risks from unchecked acceptable use policy violations and unsanctioned application usage.
- 94% of people are considering a hybrid workforce model in the next 12 months.
- 71% of people are planning to move security mostly or fully to the cloud in the next 24 months.
- 54% of people anticipate spending more than US$5 million on remote security in the next 12 months.
