MONTREAL, July 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A global pandemic. An increasingly remote workforce. A rapidly rising number of cyberattacks. Budgets stretched to the brink. As current conditions pummel SMBs on multiple fronts, security risks – both existing and potential – have quickly become a bigger concern than ever before. In fact, 88% of SMBs are more concerned about the privacy and security of online data than they were five years ago. Software developer Devolutions is on a mission to arm SMBs with the tools they need to address some of the most pressing security concerns – from remote access to password management – to ensure they can stand ready for what is to come.
A Risky Gamble
Many businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach to cybersecurity – but this mindset is fraught with potential danger. 60% of SMBs fold within six months of a cyberattack, according to the National Cyber Security Alliance. There remains a large gap between the number of SMBs that are targets for cyberattacks and the appropriate resources available to help protect them. Throw in a global pandemic and a substantial increase in the number of remote workers – and the race to preserve and protect business operations is on. According to Martin Lemay, CISO of Devolutions, “Smaller companies rarely have the IT talent, tools or budgets to prevent many forms of cyberattacks.”
The Rise of the Remote Employee
With the substantial increase in the number of remote workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SMBs are faced with the additional challenge of not only securing their digital assets from an office environment from remote locations. Remote employees need access to all the same digital resources as on-premises employees, which requires secure connections to and from corporate networks and cloud services and applications. Organizations must find ways to ensure that personally owned devices, which might not have the most up-to-date security controls, are not passing exploits to corporate resources.
Lemay comments, “Many SMBs worldwide have been in a mad scramble to find a safe and secure solution to deploy and maintain remote access. Even as some businesses return to a physical office building, a substantial portion of the workforce is expected to remain remote on a full- or part-time basis. This means that there are hundreds of new entry points that need to be safeguarded against potential hackers. It’s a daunting challenge, especially for smaller companies that don’t have huge IT teams in place.”
The Weak Link: Passwords
Another challenge facing IT teams since employees have gone remote is the vulnerability of passwords. According to several studies issued since the pandemic began, remote workers may be exposing their personal and business accounts to the risk of takeover because of poor password security. In fact, it has been reported that 47% of SMBs are allowing end users to reuse passwords across both personal and professional accounts. This is a potential recipe for disaster. Organizations must keep critical assets secure, control and monitor sensitive information and privileged access, and vault and manage business-user passwords – all while ensuring that employees are productive and efficient. This is not an easy task for SMBs without the right solution in place.
Adds Lemay, “The trouble with many password and privileged access management solutions is that they cater almost exclusively to large organizations. Suppliers simply strip down their enterprise versions to sell to SMBs, with those versions still prohibitively expensive. This is not the best way for SMBs to tackle security.”
The First Line of Defense for SMBs
Founded in 2010, Devolutions prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for SMBs, with solutions for remote connection, remote access, password and privileged access management. The company is on a fast growth path – having doubled both its revenue and number of employees since 2017. Devolutions was also recently named to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ for its rapid revenue growth and entrepreneurial spirit. Since inception, Devolutions has worked with more than 35,000 SMBs in over 140 countries to bring easy-to-use productivity and security solutions to IT professionals.
Adds Devolutions Founder and CEO David Hervieux, “From a technical standpoint, we have focused our engineering department to create IT solutions that meet the needs of SMBs without all the unnecessary and costly bells and whistles. On the business side, our agile software development model, low touch sales strategies and extensive inbound marketing tactics keep the cost of customer acquisition low, enabling us to offer a very competitive pricing model and nimbly react to the needs of our customers. And our customer service team is always available to support the on-boarding process and provide technical support after deployment.”
Looking Ahead: Returning to the Workplace (or not)
With a mantra of “Controlling the IT Chaos” that defines their every move, Devolutions is all about keeping things simple. This pandemic has been a trigger point for SMBs to rethink their remote workforce strategy. Moving forward, as more and more companies see a mix of remote and in-office employees, they will be faced with new security challenges. But with the right tools in place, IT professionals can successfully navigate these challenges without breaking the bank.
For more information about Devolutions and their remote access, password and privileged access management solutions, please visit devolutions.net.
About Devolutions
Established in 2010, Devolutions is a Canadian-based company located near Montreal, Quebec. With more than 500,000 users in over 140 countries, Devolutions is on a mission to develop innovative software that helps users cost-effectively, simply and effectively achieve their remote desktop management, password management, privileged access management, and cybersecurity goals. The company is also committed to providing exceptional technical support, ensuring an excellent user experience that exceeds expectations, and delivering high performance with superior quality. For more information about Devolutions and its solutions, visit devolutions.net, follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, like on Facebook or subscribe on YouTube.
