Intelligent CIO North America Issue 04 | Page 42

FEATURE : 2020 CIO ’ S PRIORITY

CLOUD MIGRATION EFFORTS ARE ON HYPERDRIVE , FACILITATING GREATER AGILITY AND CONNECTING EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS AROUND THE WORLD .

being disrupted simultaneously . Most significantly , the dynamic shift to remote work we saw in 2020 presented a huge opportunity for CIOs and tech leaders to accelerate their digital agenda .
If anyone had told me earlier in the year that COVID-19 would be the new champion for the digital agenda , I ’ d have thought you were crazy . However , this is something we ’ re seeing across most , if not all , industries , with the rate of change showing little sign of slowing .
As we brace ourselves for what certainly looks set to be an extended period of disruption to our everyday working lives , priorities must shift from ensuring the continuity of business operations to ensuring we are always operating with business resilience . Cloud migration efforts are on hyperdrive , facilitating greater agility and connecting employees and customers around the world .
At the same time companies are looking to automate as many business processes as possible for the purpose of speed and agility and in reducing mundane manual steps , enabling employees to focus on their highest-value work .
Protecting the flow of data and content
Additionally , the shift to remote work has made keeping information secure even more complex . For companies , the attack surface has morphed from a single office location to hundreds or even thousands of home offices , leading to a proliferation of potential entry points needing to be secured .
This reality has been clearly reflected in the dramatic rise in the number of phishing and malware attacks we ’ ve seen in recent months . Our internal data at Box has shown that , while we previously blocked around 35 % of inbound emails due to suspicious content or links , we ’ ve now seen this rise to around 55 % to 70 % of emails since COVID-19 .
In terms of security strategy , companies must move from an emphasis on protecting the perimeter to protecting the flow of data and content .
A large part of this means getting a clear view of the different types of data your organisation holds , in terms of security importance , and what harm each could do if compromised .
Differentiating what ’ s critical from what isn ’ t allows you to pre-empt any nightmare scenarios and maximise return on your security investments .
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