Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - SonicWall VP on the cybersecurity lessons learned from the last 12 months

Cyber security is changing fast. That was the clear message from Debasish Mukherjee, Vice President for Regional Sales and APAC at SonicWall, during the seventh edition of the IT Jams series. As businesses continue to battle an evolving threat landscape, Mukherjee outlined the urgent challenges facing companies today - and warned that the post-pandemic world will be defined by new norms demanding smarter security strategies.

Reflecting on the sweeping impact of COVID-19, Mukherjee was candid about the lessons learned over the past year. "I don't want to say it was a challenging year, but I think this year - or COVID - taught us many things," he said. The pandemic forced companies into new working models, exposing weaknesses in cyber defences and creating opportunities for cyber criminals. "We have never seen such amount of attacks … the entire cyber security landscape has changed in the last one year," Mukherjee emphasised.

Key among those changes is the rise of ransomware and other aggressive attack vectors. "The ransomware has increased … the IoT attacks are increasing … a lot of things have changed," Mukherjee explained. He added that, going forward, organisations must learn from these new realities. "The important thing is what we need to see is what is our learning - and what exactly we should do," he said, urging a proactive rather than reactive approach.

Mukherjee outlined several clear takeaways. Firstly, he stressed the need for centralised policy management and orchestration. Security, he argued, should no longer be managed in silos. "Customers should think about a centralised policy management, and they should not see that in silos," he advised. As remote work becomes a permanent fixture, organisations must refine network access for users "from anywhere to everywhere".

He noted, "Remote work is here to stay and we have seen that … it will be a new norm." This reality means companies must adapt quickly. "More regulatory focus because the more attacks, then definitely organisation will focus on more regulatory regulations," he added. The increasing prominence of the IT leadership in board discussions was also predicted, with Mukherjee saying, "We will see more IT-centric CISO will be part of board members."

Cyber security consolidation was Mukherjee's next point. The tradition of assembling "best of breed" solutions from many vendors, he said, is no longer enough. "Customers should look from a single vendor and consolidated approach - and that's what will be the future."

The specific threat of ransomware is not new, but Mukherjee warned that attacks have reached alarming levels of frequency and sophistication. "Globally what we have seen is … ransomware has increased 62 percent," he said, noting the hardest hit were in the United States, followed by South Africa and Europe. However, Asia has seen the sharpest rise in ransomware incidents. "Asia has grown more than 400 percent," he pointed out.

Mukherjee illustrated this with a shocking data point: "Last year in January we have seen [one ransomware] attack per day. In September, we have seen one attack per eight seconds, so you can well imagine what kind of advanced threats or advanced attacks started happening," he explained.

Adding further complexity is the emergence of highly targeted and state-linked ransomware strains, which selectively avoid certain countries. "There are two kinds of ransomware: exhaustive and erratic. This is giving a state of haven, excluding a couple of countries and attacking other countries," he noted, highlighting the growing issue of politically motivated cyber attacks.

Ransomware is also becoming a business in its own right: "We have seen ransomware as a service, so it's getting more professionalised business for cyber criminals," Mukherjee said.

Responding to the increase in supply chain and nation-state attacks, he explained why these methods are so appealing to hackers: "Their objective is to maximise evasiveness - they want to hide and reach out to the customer and get access to customer data." Incidents like the SolarWinds breach have shown how attackers use trusted software updates as vectors for widespread compromise. "User will definitely accept this and it will get access to the user's credentials … it's more of a Trojanised attack," he pointed out.

The pandemic also saw a wave of state-sponsored attacks targeting organisations involved in developing COVID-19 treatments. "What we have seen is multiple such countries are attacking more in the organisations - those who are developing the drugs related to COVID," Mukherjee said.

Turning again to remote work, he noted the seismic shift since early 2020. "Almost every employee started working from home … even if we are coming out from COVID, still what we see is it will be a new norm," he said. Citing research from Gartner, Mukherjee underlined that "almost 200 percent" of organisations surveyed are now focused on supporting work-from-home arrangements.

Adapting to this new norm requires a comprehensive approach to security. "My suggestion or the key takeaways, what I would like to tell all my customers, is do not ignore work from home. At the same time, let's start focusing on protecting your remote employees," he said. Mukherjee stressed the importance of both technology solutions and a mindset shift for all businesses, as the era of hybrid and home-based work continues.

He concluded by saying, "This is going to stay … we have solutions available and we can give you all these protections." For Mukherjee and SonicWall, the future of cyber security is as much about people and processes as technology. As he put it, "That's what our boundary cyber security is all about."