As vaccination gathers pace across the county, employees working from home are increasingly being asked to return to offices or opt for a hybrid work model.

This, however, poses a security threat as employees interact with colleagues, clients and others through this model.

“To adapt to hybrid working environments, more companies will adopt the ‘zero trust’ security model in 2022,” says Jason Lee, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of Zoom.

The ‘zero trust’ approach requires verifying everything, trusting none when it comes to cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity for ‘new India’

To protect the hybrid workforce from risk, security professionals will deploy modern tools and technologies like multi-factor authentication and the ‘zero trust’ approach.

“I believe that companies need these tools to make sure their employees can get work done as safely as possible from wherever they are — commuting, travelling, or working from home or from the office,” Lee says.

On the likely trends in the information security sector next year, he said security leaders would step up their protections against third-party risks.

“In security, you always need to be thinking ahead about what might come down the pipeline. From SolarWinds in December 2020, to Colonial Pipeline and Kaseya in 2021, our industry saw a distinct increase in supply chain attacks. CISOs and chief security officers will need to make sure their vendors are also secure,” he says.

Special teams

With security threats worsening, companies will consider setting up special committees for cybersecurity.

Despite sharp increase in cyber attacks, majority of firms are not well prepared

“Zoom created a three-member committee on our board to focus on issues related to cybersecurity,” Lee said in a statement here.

Hiring

He predicted that companies will hire cybersecurity professionals to strengthen their cover.

“I believe we’ll see the cybersecurity talent pool grow as more professionals choose to enter the field due to increased demand and, in many cases, the ability to work from anywhere,” he said.