VIEWPOINT
SECURING THE NEW NORMAL THE NEW NORMAL CALLS FOR A RETHINK ON ENDPOINT SECURITY, SAYS BEN CARR, CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, QUALYS
F
or many years now, cybersecurity professionals around the world have been warning of a device explosion. The most recent estimates from Cisco claim that there will be three IP-networked devices for every human on the planet by 2023, and half of all connections will be M2M. Policing this trend — coping with the expanding attack surface — was difficult enough up until the end of 2019. Then an unprecedented global public-health crisis accelerated a parallel trend that will add a new layer of complexity to the security conundrum. The Arab Gulf region is rapidly embracing remote working. In the first half of this year, many projects
30
CXO INSIGHT ME
NOVEMBER 2020
that were in the pipeline were sped into production in an effort to keep employees safe from the spread of COVID-19. In March, Statista reported that 35% of Gulf enterprises were either already working remotely, starting soon or exploring the possibility. Given the events of the past few months, we can only assume that remote working will be the norm, rather than the exception. In fact, a July survey from Robert Half, found that 80% of United Arab Emirates (UAE) employees would prefer to work from home, post COVID-19. While such practices are vital components of any coherent publichealth response, millions of stay-athome workers will look like a banquet to bad actors. Unvetted endpoints are strewn across the region, inviting
ransomware, enticing advanced threats, and encouraging phishing campaigns. CISOs must now look to the future, where it is likely our hybrid office will persist. Traditional security solutions, cumbersome and fragmented as they are, will no longer prevent, or even mitigate, digital incursions. Security professionals must now turn to integrated, all-inone endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions to navigate these new waters. Out with the old… A few months before the WHO declared COVID a pandemic, a Gartner Market Guide report on EDR solutions revealed a decisive worldwide shift towards these nextgeneration approaches. Half of those
