Episode 4: Customers, Employees, Partners — How the network is evolving to Serve Them All

Working from home used to be a perk. Now it’s a way of life. The way we shop changed so quickly, so thoroughly, that many retailers were caught off guard, and technology in many cases wasn’t ready for the surge. Instead of a company-issued device hooked into a LAN, the network ecosystem became instead a diverse ecosystem of end points, corporate networks, home routers, and VPNs.

For security pros, this had the makings of a nightmare.

“I think the biggest source of breach is on the user side and it comes in the form of password management and a lot of those things,” says Zeus Kerravala, security research analyst with ZK Research. “I actually talked with somebody that does penetration testing and he said 90% of the hires that companies that hire him he can breach within an hour, and usually that’s just through bad passwords.”

Security teams have always had to balance productivity with protection. With the pandemic, that task has gotten tougher. Security leaders say they’re more concerned about attacks targeting employees at home since social & work restrictions sent employees to their living rooms or spare bedrooms 18 months ago.

And yet … Despite the uptick in remote work last year, fewer than 40% of organizations have IT security policies in place to address end devices, video conferencing, or collaboration tools.

In this fourth episode of Comcast’s podcast series “Network Security for a Hybrid Business World,” we’ll focus on the changes our experts have noted, and how they’re affecting all the stakeholders: from customers, security teams, and employees to partners and leadership.

IDG CSO Security Priorities Survey 2020
IDG GIS CyberSecurity Survey 2021