Analyzing the 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon report on Information security we envisage the heavy dependence on the internet and other online technologies to conduct business remotely and ensure “social distancing, in this era of Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic left school teachers to learn how to use Information Technology (IT) to teach students remotely. Doing business, healthcare, schooling remotely drastically increased the reliance on the internet and Internet of Things (IoT) devices leading to a corresponding increase in cybercrimes. Cybercriminals have taken advantage of COVID-19 anxiety, the shift to remote work, learning, and remote living, which relies heavily on the internet to lunch cyber-attacks, email scams, spread misinformation for financial and other reasons (Omodunbi et al., 2020).

The advent of Covid-19 tremendously influenced remote working conditions. With the swift spread of the virus around the globe and the mad rush to remote working conditions, IT professionals continue to be under tremendous pressure to develop and extend new types of online collaborative software to ensure business continuity. This rush in developing new products that are not well tested only helps to broaden the attack surface and increase the risk of potential cyber-attacks. On the other hand, IoT devices aid in facilitating working, learning, and living from anywhere around the globe through the use of the internet. However, the increased use of IoT devices and various cloud service offerings, especially teleconference applications like Zoom, to facilitate remote work, meant confidential information is stored and processed on many different sources, thus raising privacy concerns. As a result, privacy laws such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) serve as watchdogs for consumer privacy issues (EDUCAUSE, 2021). In these unprecedented times, the demand for security professionals continues to skyrocket. Organizations find it hard to get trained, qualified security professionals to foster security within their Information technology infrastructures (EDUCAUSE, 2021). This “information security skill gap” threatens the security of information systems, thereby influencing the rush to the cloud (Cobb, 2016).

There is a heavy reliance on cloud services arising from the several benefits provided by various cloud technologies. These benefits stem from easy accessibility to cloud-based applications virtually from anywhere with the use of the internet, to rapid data response in case of incidents or disasters involving loss of data with data replication, and most importantly, the reduced cost of administering IT services with the ‘pay-as-you-use’ strategy. As a result of these benefits of using cloud services, there is a drive towards the use of third-party could vendors to secure information technology solutions that are more efficient, less expensive, and at scale with redundancy, adding to the benefits of support provided by these vendors (EDUCAUSE, 2021). Thus, instead of making substantial capital investments in IT products and services and searching for cybersecurity talents where there is a massive shortage in the security workforce, more and more organizations prefer to solicit the services of cloud vendors. These cloud vendors provide the whole package for a reduced fee compared to setting up an on-premise data center and acquiring talents. Thus, organizations can now focus on the most crucial aspect of the business, which is running the business. With this, it is fair to say that the reduced cost of cloud service offerings and the security information talent gap influence the rush to the cloud where the whole package could be gotten from one place.

References

Cobb, S. (2016). Mind this gap: Criminal hacking and the global cybersecurity skills shortage, a critical analysis. Virus Bulletin Conference,      

EDUCAUSE. (2021). 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Information Security Edition. Horizon. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2021/2/2021_horizon_report_infosec.pdf?la=en&hash=6F5254070245E2F4234C3FDE6AA1AA00ED7960FB        

Omodunbi, B., OM, O., Adeyanju, I., Sobowale, A., Nnamdi, O., Adebimpe, E., & Adanigbo, O. (2020). CYBER SECURITY THREATS IN THE ERA OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA SYSTEM. https://www.academia.edu/45702467/CYBER_SECURITY_THREATS_IN_THE_ERA_OF_COVID_19_PANDEMIC_A_CASE_STUDY_OF_NIGERIA_SYSTEM