If the COVID-19 pandemic hit 15 years ago, think about how many more thousands of small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) would have been forced to shut down.

Technology has made it possible for many SMBs to survive the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Wireless networks have evolved from a “nice-to-have” feature to a mission-critical component of the IT infrastructure. Organizations that depend on mobile devices are equally dependent on Wi-Fi — sometimes more than they are the wired network.

But even organizations that rely primarily on wireless still require a high-performance, back-end wired network.

There has been a lot of focus on the security threats associated with remote workers — and rightfully so. In the Acronis Cyberthreats Report 2020, 31 percent of organizations reported daily cyberattacks, primarily targeting remote workers. The rapid shift to remote work greatly expanded the attack surface, with employees’ devices connecting to corporate resources from outside the network perimeter.

Without proper planning, rushed migration processes can bring increased risk, cost and complexity.

Pandemic-triggered workforce changes led businesses worldwide to accelerate their cloud migration plans by an average of six years, according to a recent Lawless Research study.

Data loss prevention solutions prevent sensitive 
data from seeping through cracks in security.

IT security systems are designed to prevent malicious outside forces from invading the network. However, these systems generally do little to keep data inside the network.

When millions of Americans were forced to work from home this year, it created an enormous strain on home Wi-Fi networks. According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-Fi activity increased by 82 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels with record numbers of devices connecting and moving an unprecedented amount of data.

By some estimates, more than two-thirds of all businesses in the U.S. work with a managed services provider (MSP) to improve the efficiency, reliability and security of their critical IT operations. As technology environments become more complex, the demand for these services continues to build — analysts are predicting the market will grow by nearly 75 percent over the next five years.

The pandemic has forced organizations to rapidly implement remote work strategies in order to sustain operations. The transition has largely been successful thanks to an array of cloud-based applications, collaboration tools and remote access technologies.

In our last post, we discussed four cyber threats that you should prepare for in 2021. Ransomware, threats targeting personal devices, encrypted threats and attacks on virtual private networks are among the cyberattacks expected to cause the most damage in the coming year.

As hackers continue to step up their attacks, every organization should provide employees with regular security awareness training.

Human beings are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. Organizations can implement the most sophisticated security tools, but one user clicking on a malicious link or giving up sensitive data can cause a security incident.