When established work routines are suddenly disrupted by a one-in-a-lifetime pandemic, compliance challenges multiply at a rapid pace—at least that’s one lesson 2020 has taught us.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, organizations in 2021 can expect to face amplifications of familiar challenges on top of new ones. Overcoming these challenges will be a key to steady growth and ongoing competitiveness.
Challenge #1: Continued Digital Transformation
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, many organizations have been experiencing a major dip in their revenue numbers. When short on money, it’s only sensible to reduce all non-essential spending, but deciding what’s essential and what’s not is often the difficult part—except when it comes to digital transformation.
Research from PwC highlighted that the top 5 percent of the surveyed organizations invest 33 percent more than their competitors in techniques and tools that drive their digital supremacy and almost always have a clear direction for digital, constantly innovating and adopting new methods of working.
The critical importance of digital transformation for sustaining business growth is the reason why 80 percent of organizations globally accelerated their digital transformation efforts in 2020, according to a press release published by Dell. If you want your organization to thrive in these trying times and beyond, you must make the continuation of your digital transformation strategy your top priority.
Challenge #2: Post-COVID Way of Working
The COVID-19 and the epidemiological measures to slow down its spread have radically disrupted established work routines, forcing many people to work from their homes. Even with vaccination efforts in full force, it will take some time before all employees will be able to safely return to their offices, and some already don’t look forward to it.
Many employees have discovered that they get more work done at home, all while avoiding rush-hour traffic and the cost of their daily commute. Organizations that haven’t supported remote working arrangements before the pandemic should evaluate whether the benefits such arrangements provide are worth the increased compliance risk associated with them.
Any organization that decides in favor of remove working must implement appropriate security measures to protect its remote workers from cybercriminals, who see them as easy prey.
Challenge #3: Rising Cyber Attacks
The novel coronavirus isn’t the only thing that has been spreading uncontrollably from host to host for the past year. Various cyber-attacks, such as social engineering campaigns and ransomware, have been behaving similarly, infecting organizations large and small at an alarming rate.
Some 907,000 spam messages, 737 incidents related to malware and 48,000 malicious URLs related to COVID-19 were detected by one of INTERPOL’s private sector partners alone in one four-month period (January to April), and Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that cybercrime costs will exceed $6 trillion annually by 2021.
No wonder then that 52 percent of legal and compliance leaders surveyed by Gartner in 2020 were concerned about third-party compliance risk. To protect themselves from it, they must review their existing policies and update them to reflect the new normal.
Face Compliance Challenges With an MSP
Smaller organizations that don’t employ in-house cybersecurity staff should consider partnering with a managed service provider (MSP) capable of monitoring and maintaining data and IT infrastructure with a multilayered cybersecurity strategy that encompasses everything from malware and antivirus protections to web filtering and firewalls to advanced encryption and more.
An experienced MSP can provide invaluable strategic advice and guidance, helping organizations ensure digital transformation success even when faced with unprecedented challenges. At Aligned Technology Solutions, we employ a team of IT experts who can take care of all your technology needs so that you can dedicate your full attention to your business and clients.
Get in touch with us today and let us help you tackle all compliance challenges you encounter in 2021 and beyond.
