The outbreak of COVID-19 has led many businesses to transition a large number of employees to remote work. The shift could end up becoming a long-term trend; it’s expected to continue after the pandemic ends. Therefore, it is more important than ever to develop strategies for managing and responding to risks within your organization. Internal risk management procedures will need to adapt to the issue of insider threats, a challenge which is compounded by remote work.

If you read our earlier blog, you know Egnyte commissioned a study to better understand how COVID-19 has impacted businesses’ ability to maintain data security and governance with a distributed workforce. The results can be found in our inaugural Data Governance Trends Report. The report offers insights into tools that the 400 IT leaders implemented to help weather the abrupt change, but it also explains the human side of data protection and governance in the age of COVID.

IT leaders are being kept up at night by one big worry: the increased risk of a data breach due to more employees working remotely. Forty percent say this is their top concern when it comes to remote work. And with good reason. Remote work, especially when accelerated by events like COVID-19 pandemic, compels employees to work on unsanctioned devices, apps, and networks, increasing the attack surface for bad actors, and leaving few checks in place for careless behavior that leads to data leaks.

'Times they are a-changin' was a song performed by Bob Dylan many decades ago, but the words ring true now more than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic has had serious repercussions on the healthcare ecosystem and has shaken up the global economy. The pandemic has also forced millions to work remotely from their homes. According to analyst firm Gartner Inc., amid Covid-19, 88% of enterprises shifted to remote working for their employees.