Digital security in the hybrid world: tips from Microsoft

security advice from Microsoft

Technology was the super power of organizations when Covid-19 arrived and everything stopped. People worked from home, students learned remotely, citizens were able to continue doing their paperwork with the State digitally. Commerce became electronic, health adopted telemedicine, and banking accelerated its digital services. Technology enabled all organizations, of all sizes and industries, to react, respond and reimagine. Technology, coupled with creativity and resilience, made what seemed impossible possible.

Many of those changes that seem to have come to stay. The workforce seems to want to stay in a flexible mode: Microsoft's Work Trend Index showed that 70% of employees want to continue in hybrid and flexible models, and in a recent Microsoft-commissioned survey of Colombian SMEs, more than half of They declared that they currently manage hybrid work schemes.

Citizens' expectations have already risen and the State's procedures on digital platforms cannot be reversed. There are already more than 9 thousand procedures that can be carried out online. In matters of justice, the notifications, the granting of powers, the files and the hearings are now virtual, with enormous benefits for the decongestion of the courts and the efficiency of the processes. E-commerce transactions, even after the most restrictive measures of the health emergency had passed, continued to grow at a rate of 33% in 2021. The same thing happened with banking: access to financial products and services continues to increase and, according to According to the Financial Superintendence, seven out of 10 operations in the country moved through digital channels in the first quarter of this year.

But as online activity has grown exponentially and opened up vast opportunities, it has also broadened the surface of cyber risk. Criminals know the value of information and have therefore multiplied the frequency and sophistication of their attacks. According to the IDB, online crimes already account for half of all property crimes that take place in the world. In Colombia, they are the criminal modality with the highest growth in the last three years, with an increase of 115% between 2020 and 2021, according to the SAFE report of the Colombian Chamber of Technology Industries -CCIT-.

Faced with this reality, organizations need to be better prepared and have a new security approach to prevent, detect and mitigate the risks of cyberattacks, since the truth is that one of these attacks costs an average of 3.9 million dollars a year in the world. organization, and a company can go more than 50 days without detecting it. The stakes are high, and with employees at home, connected through their personal computers and home or public networks, the truth is that perimeter security postures are no longer enough. “Organizations today need a new security model that more effectively adapts to the complexity of the modern environment, takes advantage of the hybrid workplace, and protects people, devices, applications and data wherever they are. find. It is a unique moment to simplify and strengthen security throughout the company, this vision can help your organization to continue advancing with confidence in these uncertain times”, says Jaime Galviz, president of Microsoft for Colombia.