Before the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, IT budgets were on the rise. According to a Spiceworks’ State of IT 2020 Report, IT budgets were rising as businesses began to replace outdated technology to the tune of 44 percent, up from 38 percent previously in 2019. The survey results were based on 1,000 IT professionals interviewed throughout North America.

The Outlook for 2020 and Beyond

But that was then, and this is now. Those same budget drivers are now held into question because of the economic realities brought upon us by COVID-19. Many technology leaders were forced into survival mode and asked to review non-essential IT spending to see if those actions could be deferred, altered, or eliminated. A new study from online research firm Pulse Inc. found that 23 percent of CIOs have had their budgets frozen, while 20 percent saw a significant cut of more than 10 percent. With this sudden cut to their budgets, they had to make every cybersecurity dollar count quickly.

Several organizations have turned to the essentials, virtualizing their company’s applications, securing connections through Virtual Private Networks and locking down permissions. However, now that companies are through the pandemic’s initial panic, leaders need to see where they can fill the gap with affordable but effective solutions. Gartner Research predicted that more than 40 percent of employees plan to work away from their offices post-COVID-19 pandemic. Lawrence Pingree, Gartner’s Managing Vice President, said some security segments benefit this new future, such as cloud-based offerings and as-a-service subscriptions.

So how do I make our Cybersecurity Dollars count?  

There are two areas IT leaders should look to for affordable and effective cyber security solutions during this time in lockdown:

Email Security & User Training

Since most attacks are delivered through email, remote workers will be vulnerable to spear phishing, ransomware, and other emerging threats. Protecting inboxes with a simple, low-cost monthly solution that protects against these threats is essential. However, the risk of data loss and legal compliance are to be of concern as well. Several companies offer solutions in this area; however, be wary of long contracts and pricing agreements determined by user count, since this will most likely be changing throughout the next while. Users must also be trained to keep an eye out for suspicious emails since a lot of devices still aren’t fully managed. Your users will be your first line of defence in an endless uphill battle. There are several free and paid solutions out there to get your users trained.

Endpoint Security

As companies rush to equip remote workers with technology to continue their work away from the office, IT leaders should not forget to secure endpoints connected to the network. This is one area of the IT budget that cannot be left behind as each Endpoint can be opened by hackers and exploited. There are several solutions out there to protect endpoints, but companies should focus on solutions that are fully managed and automated to reduce the risk to their company and reduce costs. Also, one thing to consider when looking into endpoint security is encryption of their devices. Jolera talks about this in further detail in our article “3 Ways to Secure Remote Workers for the Future”.

The thing to note is that there are several solutions out there in the market to protect your organization. However, careful consideration needs to be taken as the new normal is trending towards remote work. This means that these solutions aren’t band-aids but permanent solutions to help transform your organization.

Jolera has multiple affordable but effective solutions for partners to distribute to their clients worldwide. These solutions are built with remote workers in mind. Our services like Secure IT Mail and Secure IT Endpoint can be deployed quickly and scale to the ever-changing business environment as companies reduce users and gain new ones. These solutions are integrated into our sophisticated Security Information & Event Management system (SIEM) and are monitored and managed by security specialists in our 24x7x365 Security Operations Center.