Dealing With Technology Change in Pandemic Recovery
Note: Survey responses were collected between August 31 and September 10, 2020. This survey is part of a series to understand how Canadians are leveraging technology in the pandemic.
Tech Checkup
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(n = 683; percentage of organizations)
This is more evident in some industries and less in others
Still, 15% of respondents said their workforce doesn’t know enough about cyber threats. This is a gap that only education can fill.
October 15, 2020
While organizations like the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre and the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security have drawn attention to COVID-19-related threats, this may represent a change in the approach threats take, rather than an increase in frequency. It may also explain why most organizations we engaged have not changed their risk tolerance.
Q: Which steps has your company/organization taken to guard against insider threats from remote workers? (please select all that apply)
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 487)
Multi-factor authentication is by far the most common approach to guard against insider threats from remote workers
Organizations are split almost evenly
on adopting new technology.
Q: Which best describes the current state of your organization’s workers who were on-site before the pandemic?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 683)
Almost half of respondents say their knowledge workforce is now fully or mostly remote
Since the onset of the pandemic, a large swath of Canada’s workforce has been working remotely.
This means employees are removed from the support of the office.
Cyber threats
Q: Have you made any changes to your risk tolerance for cyberattacks and
data breaches?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 566)
Risk tolerance for cyberattacks and data breaches has largely remained the same
Q: How would you categorize the overall awareness of cyber threats in your workforce?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 487)
Most respondents believe their workforce has a foundational or better understanding and awareness of cyber threats
Q: Has your organization accelerated its technology adoption (e.g., mass emergency messaging services, digital signatures) because of COVID-19?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 469)
Still, many organizations have accelerated their technology adoption because of COVID-19
Organizations want to keep in touch with their remote workforce. By far, the most commonly reported technologies were remote collaboration software (e.g., video conferencing, instant messaging) and digital signatures. This was followed by virtual private network (VPN) and cloud technologies for file sharing.
While half of our respondents indicated they have a managed security service provider to help their retail operations, 44% don’t have one and don’t plan to acquire one. This could be due to a number of reasons. They could be confident in their current systems, or they could be mitigating expenses during an uncertain time.
How have technology leaders been preparing their organizations for this new way of working? Are our cyber strategies keeping up?
The Conference Board of Canada surveyed 683 IT leaders and practitioners to understand how Canadian organizations are handling the pandemic. This is what we learned.
Respondents were split on their staff’s awareness of cyber threats, but most seem confident in employees’ ability to recognize risks.
Q: Have you noticed an increase in reported cyber attacks, insider threats, or data breaches since the pandemic began?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 566)
Most respondents have not noticed an increase in threats
Phishing attacks were the most common. Other tactics that were mentioned include:
targeted attacks
data leaks
remote access attempts
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 469)
This is especially true for public administration organizations
(74% of respondents)
However, respondents from organizations that have accelerated their technology adoption were also more likely to say that they’ve noticed an increase in reported cyber attacks.
Cybersecurity: what steps are organizations taking?
Organizations want to make sure their employees are who they say they are. The top three steps taken to protect against insider threats all involve making sure that only those who need access have access.
Q: Does your organization have a managed security service provider (MSSP) supporting retail operations, particularly for managed detection and response (MDR)?
Source: The Conference Board of Canada.
(percentage of respondents; n = 566)
Half of respondents have a managed security service provider to support retail operations
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