Print.IT Reseller - issue 80

BULLETIN Firms see security as a cost rather than an investment STX Next’s Global CTO Survey revealed over half of global organisations still do not have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in place across their business. This is despite a widespread shift to home working and its continued prevalence as restrictions tighten across Europe. Key findings from the investigation included: Almost 80% of participants do not have a dedicated team or department providing security services to the organisation. 40% of organisations are using specialised companies for security and cybersecurity. For those organisations with a BYOD policy, 13% do not even use multi-factor authentication. Chairman Maciej Dziergwa, said: “The data obtained from our survey brought to light some interesting (and concerning) realities around the approach organisations have towards cybersecurity. Unfortunately, it seems many still see security as a cost rather than an investment.” www.stxnext.com Encryption-based threats grow by 260% The 2020 State of Encrypted Attacks report, published by the Zscaler ThreatLabZ team revealed the emerging techniques and impacted industries behind a 260% spike in attacks using encrypted channels to bypass legacy security controls. Researchers witnessed a 5x increase in ransomware attacks over encrypted traffic beginning in March 2020, when the WHO declared the virus a pandemic. Phishing attacks reached more than 193 million instances during the first nine months of 2020 and 30% of SSL- based attacks were delivered through trusted cloud providers. www.zscaler.com Homeworking set to become permanent fixture Homeworking is set to become a permanent fixture for thousands of UK businesses as nine in 10 (86%) plan to offer more remote working options to their employees. That’s according to research commissioned by Zen Internet, which also found that the drive towards homeworking has been accelerated by the pandemic – with almost half (49%) saying their plans to expand remote working came as a result of COVID-19. Businesses looking to offer more remote working options are clamouring to do so with a level of urgency. Seven in 10 (70%) plan to act within the next year and one in four (24%) are looking at between one and two years to implement. This marks a step change in business attitudes – only one in five (19%) offered and encouraged remote working as an option to their entire workforce pre- March 2020. www.zen.co.uk/business Cyber security organisations’ top technology priority The 2020 Business Tech Priorities Report from Softcat offers an exclusive snapshot of the enterprise IT landscape amid the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and which technologies are being prioritised for recovery and future prosperity. For the fourth year running, cyber security is ranked as organisations’ top technology priority. 86% of industries, and organisations of all sizes, say their focus is keeping users, data and infrastructure secure. The second priority area for investment is end-user computing. Bringing the full digital workspace to life, end-user computing consolidates all systems required for the daily workload and allows employees to work at their most productive, both on premises and remotely. Pre COVID-19, digital agendas were often held back by change barriers. The pandemic has acted as a tipping point, forcing organisations to deploy cloud technologies in ways never thought possible. As a result, a new era for cloud technology adoption has begun, moving towards a multi-cloud environment with a more strategic emphasis. What’s more, communication and collaboration tools are now more important to organisations than this time last year, ranked in fifth place (up from seventh position in 2019). The survey also reveals the increased focus on cyber security, end-user computing, cloud and communication, comes at the expense of investment in emerging technologies like IoT and AI. For the fourth year running, emerging technologies are ranked in second to last place. www.softcat.com PRINTITRESELLER.UK 7 01732 75972 5 1680 We can buy your unused toners As a Managed Print Service provider, we understand how important it is to deliver the best value and performance to your customers. After all, your business is all about helping your customers to reduce costs, optimise efficiency and automate processes. Our dedicated team at The Jolly Savage work closely with many Managed Print Service businesses to handle their customers’ surplus toner stock; if you have unused toners that you are interested in selling, contact us today for a no obligation quote. Are you a Managed Print Service provider? 01462 60 50 50 · [email protected] · www.thejollysavage.co.uk