In today’s digital-first era, cyber threats are a persistent and challenging reality for enterprises. According to a 2024 State of Cybersecurity report by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), 38% of organizations experienced increased cybersecurity attacks in 2024, compared to 31% in 2023. Data from Check Point shows that these attacks continue to increase, spiking to an average of 1,876 cyberattacks per organization during Q3 of 2024. This marks a 75% increase over the same period in 2023.
With cyber threats continuing to grow in frequency and sophistication, it’s not surprising that cyber risks are the number one business concern. A PwC survey found that 66% of tech leaders rank cyber as the top risk their organization is prioritizing for mitigation over the next 12 months.
There is no doubt that digital-first enterprises today are facing a wide array of security challenges and threats. An expanding threat landscape, rapidly evolving technology and a fragmented regulatory environment are all converging to create enormous complexity for organizations when it comes to protecting sensitive business data.
To solve these security challenges and risks, enterprises are turning to technologies like NetSfere’s mobile messaging and collaboration platform that are designed to maintain data security, integrity, and privacy.
Expanded threat landscape
With the adoption of remote and hybrid working models and ongoing enterprise digital transformation, the cyber threat landscape continues to expand in organizations.
Hybrid and remote work are a mainstay in many businesses today. A report by Owl Labs reveals that in 2024 more than one in three workers (38%) were hybrid or remote, increasing by 15% from 2023. This includes 27% who are hybrid, a 4% increase from last year. The report also revealed that full-time remote work surged by 57%, with 11% of workers working from home.
As organizations expand their digital footprints to support remote and hybrid work and improve customer experience, the number of endpoints and applications multiply and right along with that comes increasing exposure to security vulnerabilities.
Solving for these risks
Enterprises can reduce this exposure and strengthen their security posture by using a secure by design and default mobile messaging and collaboration platform.
Purpose built for enterprises, NetSfere ensures the security, compliance, and control of business communication across geographically dispersed teams and across all devices.
The end-to-end encryption (E2EE) built into the platform protects data at rest and in transit and robust administrative controls embed data security and compliance into business communication across every channel. Combined, these features reduce the attack surface, providing no point of entry for threat actors intent on accessing and exploiting sensitive enterprise data.
Rapidly evolving technology
While new technology brings many benefits to enterprises, it also introduces new threats. Today, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is posing security challenges for organizations and the looming emergence of quantum computing is bringing other security threats to the forefront.
AI
Enterprises are increasingly accelerating the adoption of AI to automate tasks, improve data analysis and decision making, personalize customer experiences and more. According to a survey by McKinsey, while AI adoption by respondent organizations hovered at about 50% over the last six years, in 2024, adoption jumped to 72%.
As enterprises rush to deploy AI to reap the business value of this technology, cybercriminals are busy using the technology to hone and automate their attacks. They are weaponizing AI to execute sophisticated phishing attacks, deploy malware that evades detection, and compromise chatbots.
Quantum computing
Experts do not know exactly when quantum computing will arrive, but many believe that it could be in the next five to ten years.
Google’s recent introduction of a new quantum chip called Willow marked a significant advancement toward commercially viable quantum computing. Willow performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 1025 or 10 septillion years.
The looming concern for enterprises is that a future cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) will be able to break most public-key encryptions that currently secure digital communications.
While quantum breakthroughs like Willow cannot yet break current encryption protocols, it is only a matter of time before the technology matures enough to do so.
The quantum risk is not just a future worry for enterprises – quantum threats are present today. Cybercriminals are wasting no time preparing for the quantum computing era by deploying “harvest-now, decrypt-later” (HNDL) attacks. Bad actors are currently working to steal encrypted data and storing the data until they can use quantum computers to decrypt it. They are mining data from messaging apps, collaboration tools, and other systems, putting sensitive business data at risk of exposure and exploitation.
The fast-approaching era of quantum computing is creating an urgent imperative for enterprises to speed up their timelines for adopting post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to protect critical systems and data from quantum threats.
Securing against emerging threats
As AI and quantum computing pose new security challenges, organizations need secure solutions designed to address these challenges.
NetSfere’s AI-driven mobile messaging platform is built for the enterprise, unlocking the full value of AI safely and securely. It provides a secure AI experience unique to each organization without integrating with any open-source chat/AI functionalities and without any data or information ever leaving the enterprise.
NetSfere also future-proofs business communication, defending sensitive data against the impending capabilities of quantum computing. NetSfere’s crypto-agile architecture features seamless integration of post-quantum cryptography that ensures data remains secure now and in the quantum era.
Fragmented regulatory environment
As technology evolves and the threat landscape expands, policymakers are working to develop cybersecurity laws and regulations aimed at protecting data security and privacy.
In the U.S., the absence of a federal data privacy regulation means that enterprises must comply with a fragmented mix of state laws that govern how data is collected, processed, and stored. Overlapping compliance regulations across different states and countries creates compliance complexity that is massively challenging for enterprises to navigate.
Last year, seven new states passed comprehensive data privacy laws in the U.S., bringing the total number of state data privacy laws to 19.
Lawmakers are also working to address the unique data protection challenges posed by AI.
In the U.S. last year, at least 45 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C., introduced AI bills, and 31 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands adopted resolutions or enacted AI legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Outside the U.S., the European Union (EU) enacted the world’s first comprehensive AI regulation. According to the EU, “the aim of the new rules is to foster trustworthy AI in Europe and beyond, by ensuring that AI systems respect fundamental rights, safety, and ethical principles and by addressing risks of very powerful and impactful AI models.”
As a post-quantum future looms, policymakers will also soon be addressing compliance requirements related to PQC standards. This will require enterprises to ensure their cryptographic practices are compliant with evolving regulations and standards.
Simplifying data security and compliance
Laws and regulations addressing data security and privacy are continuing to evolve. To successfully navigate compliance today, enterprises need solutions that take the complexity out of compliance.
NetSfere takes the complexity out of compliance, providing enterprises with a convenient and frictionless way to communicate and collaborate while safeguarding data security and ensuring regulatory compliance.
An AI-driven, quantum-safe platform, NetSfere helps organizations build the most secure, compliant digital workplace with industry-leading PQC end-to-end encryption, full IT control, guaranteed compliance, and no data collection ever.
Wrapping up
Enterprises today face a wide array of cybersecurity risks that make it challenging to maintain the security, privacy, and integrity of their data. As the threat landscape expands, technology advances and the regulatory environment continues to evolve, solutions like NetSfere are mission-critical to helping organizations mitigate these risks.
