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If we had a dollar for every blog post that started with “we are living in unprecedented times” in the last month, we’d be sipping mai tais … in our living rooms. But it certainly is true and I don’t mean to make light of the extreme situation we’re all in right now. Case in point, recent reports from Netskope, and the industry at large, show that more enterprises are moving their workforces to remote, resorting to cloud adoption at a breakneck pace and certainly faster than any projections I’ve seen in recent years from industry leaders or analysts.
For businesses, these changes can be categorized into how services are being consumed and how they are being delivered. We’re seeing leaders work hard to understand how they deliver value to customers who are no longer able to come through the door. As a result, they’re finding ways to pivot their business to online storefronts, curbside pickup, and delivery. All of this taken together is digital transformation in action, but with that also comes new threats and security transformation.
All of this flux and forced mobility as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, means that security teams are evolving and transforming very rapidly while also trying to understand what a “new normal” could look like for their business. I’ve had a chance to talk with a number of CISOs over the last month, and here are some of the key takeaways from those conversations and some guidance for how CISO’s and security teams should be adapting their strategies:
1. Breathe, get your footing, circle the team
Unless you were Nostradamus last year and said “We’re going to move everything to the cloud and be able to support a 100% remote workforce by March 2020,” you’re now in the process of rethinking everything or having to accelerate your plans. Everything you thought you were going to be doing this year just got turned on its side and there’s nothing you can do about that. The first thing CISOs are telling me is that it’s very important to take a deep breath, stay human, and just acknowledge this moment with your team. Recognize that this is likely the hardest crisis many people have had to confront in their lifetime. People are going through a lot at home and with their families — so be sure to create the safe space people need to do the best that they can. Once you do that, many teams are realizing that there are actually opportunities during a crisis — we’ll talk about that more in a second.
2. Adapt expectations of how people work and don’t be afraid to throw out current models
This is a situation that actually encourages quick and nimble thinking because companies and security teams alike need to rethink how they can do business in this new world. We have some uncertainty as to how long we’re all going to operate in this manner, and we may even find that there are some efficiencies for companies to continue operating this way. Can employees shift to more flexible hours to manage their work and life? Does this mean that you might actually have more coverage on a weekend or evening shift? Embrace the opportunity to evaluate