[Trae Johnson]

In 2020, cyberattacks rose exponentially as organizations coped with the unprecedented remote work shift amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations were struggling to secure home networks, remote endpoints, and cloud infrastructure, while phishing, data breaches, and ransomware attacks surged. Misconfigured clouds, inadequate identity management, and third-party risks also presented significant threats. At the same time, cybercriminals exploited fear and confusion through COVID-titled scams and social engineering, revealing the extent to which many organizations were not prepared for such a mass-scale digital transformation.

Businesses spent more on cybersecurity technology, automation, and staff education training. Most adopted stronger identity and access management controls, such as multi-factor authentication and least privilege guidelines, to limit damage from a compromised account. Organizations improved patch management, cloud settings were locked down, and vendor control was strengthened to cut supply chain risk. Compliance practices accelerated as privacy law like GDPR gathered momentum, forcing companies to concentrate on information safeguarding and disclosure.

These responses highlighted a few key lessons: security is as much about people and processes as it is about technology, and visibility across systems is required to mitigate risk. The actions taken in 2020 shifted organizations in the direction of the “zero trust” mindset, with ongoing verification, least privilege, and offense-in-depth to future-proof against threats.