Intelligent CIO North America Issue 05 | Page 46

CIO OPINION
CIOs need to start thinking one step ahead of employee ’ s needs , be prepared for what comes next and challenge the organization to embrace their outlook .
– remote people – securely poses a whole new set of threats and challenges . At a base level , it also puts employees in a mindset of being outside of the office so prioritizing security less .
As more companies adopt a work-from-anywhere culture , leaders have had to anticipate the challenges that will arise from this expansion of the office perimeter and evolving cybersecurity landscape . The COVID-19 crisis has paved the way for cybercriminals to infiltrate often-outdated home networks and unmanaged personal devices in this new remote work environment . has their eye on key vulnerabilities , can maintain ongoing conversations with both employees and top-level management and ensure that employees are aware of how to remain secure no matter where they login .
Moving forward
This pandemic has presented CIOs with a broad scope of opportunity . Make sure you ’ re brought into decisionmaking early and not as an afterthought . If there ’ s one thing we ’ ve learned through the early stages of this , it ’ s that involving IT early leads to a very different outcome for the company .
If you didn ’ t already have a seat at the table , claim one now . If you had a seat at the table , use these circumstances to increase the scope of your influence . Use this spotlight to elevate your organization and your priorities and navigate whatever uncharted territory we enter into next . p
The threat to organizations is not going away , neither are employees – bringing the human element of cybersecurity with them . CIOs cannot ignore this and need to lead from the top . They are in the best position to understand the big picture – the intricacies of the IT infrastructure and the business implications of something going wrong . It is therefore vital that a CIO
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