Organisations must modernise cybersecurity and skills development to meet the demands of a dynamic environment, writes Bradley Pulford, vice-president and MD of HP Inc Africa
As the saying goes, ‘Change before you have to.’ While we eagerly await more stability following impacts of the global pandemic, the world is still addressing issues that stemmed from this period of uncertainty and change.
From customer and market behaviour to operational processes and systems, we’ve seen a need for organisations to navigate a delicate balance between resilience and growth to stand a better chance of overcoming external, and potentially destabilising, forces.
Today’s business leaders should focus on two key areas to drive a new era of resiliency: enhanced endpoint security in an evolving workplace and creating a culture of adaptability within the workforce.
Securing endpoints to ensure business resilience
A hybrid working environment is believed, by many, to be a central pillar in the future of work, coined as the ‘next normal’. With employees connecting to work infrastructure remotely on a regular basis, this exposes vital systems and vulnerabilities to firmware attacks, which are a growing concern for IT leaders. Without the correct tools and management operations in place, these threats become harder to discover and address.
A series of recent HP research projects highlight the scale of the issue.
HP Wolf Security’s ‘Blurred Lines & Blindspots’ report found that employees are more likely to engage in risky cyber-behaviour with 70% admitting to using their work device for personal tasks or allowing others to use their work laptop. Furthermore, the study identified that 69% have used personal systems, printers, or scanners to undertake work tasks since the beginning of the pandemic.
Additionally, HP’s ‘Out of Sight & Out of Mind’ report discovered a trend of ‘shadow IT’, where personal equipment is bought, installed, and used–often in the cloud–with security becoming an afterthought. 43% of people globally have not had their personal PC or laptop checked and installed by their IT department to ensure a security level acceptable to the organisation is maintained.
Finally, our ‘Rebellions & Rejections’ report revealed the attitudes of staff towards security and IT procedures exacerbates these issues, with 37% saying policies are too restrictive to carry out daily tasks. 54% of younger workers said that they’re more worried about getting work done and meeting deadlines than protecting their personal and company data from breaches; while 31% of workers aged 18-24 have tried to bypass security measures.
These statistics are putting cybersecurity professionals on the back foot, with 91% of IT teams feeling pressure to maintain security levels to ensure business continuity.
With these statistics in mind, cyber criminals are capitalising on the opportunity to access critical business and personal information. The Q1 2022 edition of the HP Wolf Security Threat Insights Report noted a 27% increase in the volume of threats captured during the quarter.
Workforce flexibility is key
At the same time as IT team’s crackdown on security gaps, organisations must also evolve their internal cultures. Business leaders, senior management and IT departments have the responsibility to educate, train and enforce security to ensure that the business and employees have the necessary skills to prosper in the highly digitised ‘next normal’.
Mental health has become a key focus for teams during and post the Covid pandemic, while cohesion has also become a ‘make or break’ characteristic of productive teams. Gartner found that cohesive teams are 37% more likely to maintain their health during workplace disruptions. For tomorrow’s workforce to be successful, business leaders need to develop collaboration and fostering inclusion within teams to build overall business adaptability.
With the rise of hybrid work and changes in how products are developed, marketed and sold, Gartner also found that nearly six in 10 employees had to learn and develop new skills to successfully do their jobs. With this increased pressure on employees, organisations need to rethink traditional roles and provide access to training to foster a workforce that is prepared for a new, digital age.
As part of making training inclusive and necessary for employees to thrive in the ‘new normal’, HP is moving toward a hiring model that prioritises talent over industry experience.
Building strength through resiliency
I believe that businesses that prioritise resiliency across these two focus areas will remain a head above the rest to overcome the challenges in today’s ‘new normal’ and in the future. While no one can predict the next shift or crisis that will change our world forever, these principles will enable business leaders to prepare for whatever comes next.