Prey Software Report Finds 43.13% of workers will stay remote after the pandemic ends

SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prey Inc., provider of the cross-platform, open source anti-theft & management software that protects more than eight million mobile devices, today announced the results of a new study, Status of the Remote Work Cyber Security Landscape 2021, which finds that 43.13% of workers will stay remote after the pandemic ends and that two out of three IT professionals are concerned with endpoint misuse. The report examines the remote work challenges generated by the pandemic year and the number of people working from home far from corporate environments, on insecure networks, in many cases sharing with other unsafe devices in their homes.

Read the free report: Prey Shift Report: Status of the Remote Work Cyber Security Landscape 2021

“As the pandemic hit in early 2020, organizations had to cope with the new reality of a remote workforce,” said Norman Gutiérrez, Cybersecurity Researcher, Prey Software. “Our survey found a whopping 75 percent were unprepared for this rapid shift and that endpoint security had become one of their top priorities.”

Remote Work Presents IT Challenge
The Prey report finds that, on average, 43.13% of workers will stay remote after the pandemic ends. They join the 63% of workers who already had some sort of remote policy implemented before the pandemic to create a vastly expanded remote work force.

In this new remote environment, IT professionals surveyed worry about the lack of IT infrastructure to allocate resources to suddenly remote workers, followed by employees using third-party software, increasingly overwhelmed IT staff, and not having enough devices for everyoe. Lack of budget is a big concern too, as well as dated infrastructure and IT personnel without the necessary experience.

Of the IT professionals surveyed for The Prey report:

• 62% stated that threats increased after the pandemic started;
• More than 50% strongly agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic and remote work has made cybersecurity a greater challenge, while 41% somewhat agreed.

Endpoint Security
The Prey report identifies endpoint security as the bread and butter of the new cybersecurity landscape: a way to secure remote office devices while also maintaining a minimum level of security for the data in transit. Data Encryption solutions are highly appreciated too, to deliver protection to the static data on every endpoint. In addition, remote work must happen in tandem with cybersecurity education for workers and frequent endpoint checkups.

Accordingly, the Prey report finds:

• 67% of IT professionals surveyed stated that endpoint misuse grew in some way or another in their organizations;
• 44% are worried that, with more liberal B.Y.O.D. policies, personal devices are being used in the workplace without risk assessment.

Identity & Access Management are a necessity for more than half of the surveyed organizations as well. Software Management sits right in the middle, a necessary evil in a remote world. Backup and Web Filtering are in dead last, only relevant to a third of surveyed professionals.

Methodology
The results shared in the Prey report come from a comprehensive survey of 300 security and IT professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. Conducted in December 2020, the Shift survey was aimed at identifying security concerns related to the remote work trend, and the evolution of such concerns as the cybersecurity landscape changed throughout the year. The respondents come from a variety of industries and organizations, big and small, with varying levels of seniority and responsibility to represent the security landscape broadly and accurately.

Read more about the Prey Shift Report: https://preyproject.com/resources/ebooks/shift/

About Prey Inc.
Prey Inc. is the only provider of anti-theft solutions for tracking and protecting mobile devices that can manage and secure all of an organization’s mobile devices from the same place. Installed on more than 8 million devices worldwide, Prey’s cross-platform, open-source security solution consolidates mobile device management on a single account, no matter how many different device manufacturers or operating system need to be tracked. Find out more at www.preyproject.com.

Media Contact
Mike Schultz | Cavalier Communications
Phone: 978-496-1012
[email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a71d7191-5576-4492-a009-2a3e6401ad59

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