Remote work is here to stay. Here are the cybersecurity risks.

The delta variant continues to dash or delay return-to-work plans, but before your company institutes work-from-home-forever plans, you need to ensure that your workforce is prepared to face the cybersecurity implications of long-term remote work.

So far in 2021, CrowdStrike has already observed over 1,400 “big game hunting” ransomware incidents and $180 million in ransom demands averaging over $5 million each. That’s due in part to the “expanded attack surface that work-from-home creates,” according to CTO Michael Sentonas.

Despite the rise in attacks, only one in five companies are confident their infrastructure security can support long-term remote work, and only 7.5% are confident that their security protections are adequate against phishing and ransomware attacks in the remote-work context, according to a recent survey of 200 North American businesses from IT firm Sungard Availability Services.