The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business landscape has been astronomical. No matter which industry you work in, there’s no doubt that things like social distancing and quarantine have forced your organisation into a new environment. For many companies, thriving in this landscape means considering various crucial updates.
Contact centres are moving to the cloud, employees are operating from home, and everyday operations are becoming more diverse. This transformation presents management challenges for business leaders but also has an impact on another area too: security.
As interactions increase, and the channels that we communicate through diversify, how do we ensure that companies are protecting their consumers from various kinds of risks? I caught up with Vincent Lomba, the Chief Technical Security Officer for ALE, to discuss the security concerns that business leaders must consider today.
What Impact Has the Pandemic Had on Security?
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Vincent Lomba[/caption]
Vincent Lomba is the Chief Technical Security Officer from ALE, one of the world’s leading companies for communication and customer engagement tools. Vincent has an extensive background in IT, telecom, and network marketing, as well as years of involvement with various operational activities in the technology field. I asked him what impact he believes the pandemic has had on security from a communications perspective.
Lomba told me that many big companies that were already prepared to send employees into remote environments have been rushing to roll out these larger, “work anywhere” solutions. “We’ve seen a lot of requests from these companies to deploy full remote working solutions with the right security systems in place. Most organisations don’t have a lot of control over the homework environment, and they can’t ask employees to handle security on their own.”
According to Vincent, ALE’s solutions are secure by design, which reduces the amount of strain on companies switching to the remote working environment. Many mid-sized companies are now also looking for more secure rollout solutions for their remote working companies too, and these organisations have less access to in-house security.
How Are Consumer Needs Changing?
The rise of remote and flexible working requirements mean that ALE and similar companies are dealing with a rapid change to what their customers and end-users need. There are more requests from partners to comply with market standards for security and privacy, and the landscape, in general, is changing on a substantial level too.
The switch to a digital environment has led to a rapid increase in attacks from a phishing and ransomware perspective, and this is a serious concern for the increasing numbers of remote workers in the space. Worrying concepts like Bitcoin and the Dark Web are creating concerns for a lot of consumers and end-users. With cyber threats on the rise, companies need to work harder than ever to protect their consumers, their employees, and their digital reputations.
“To deal with this new landscape, we’re going beyond just delivering solutions that are secure by design. We’re helping companies with best practices to ensure that they can configure their network for security. We can offer recommended tools for cyphering algorithms and set up strategies with firewalls, VPNs, and proxies. These security strategies ensure that companies of all sizes can stay protected in a new environment, and there’s no need for extensive support from an IT professional.”
