Strains Small/Medium Business Security Teams, Report Says

 Small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are under increasing strains caused by the huge work-from-home surge resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, says a new report.

The report, 2020 SMB IT Security, comes from computer science vs computer engineering security specialist Untangle, which in its 2019 report highlighted how cloud-based services and the increasing number of branch office networks are promoting the rise of software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN).

This year, familiar themes are reported -- such as budget constraints hampering security -- but COVID-19 introduces a new factor as most businesses have shifted at least part of their workforces to remote work, which some plan on continuing post-pandemic. That latter finding reaffirms what some have referred to as "the new normal" of permanent remote work.

"As the abnormal becomes our new normal, SMBs need to approach remote work by using a combination of cloud-based applications and on-premises solutions to keep employees and systems safe, and ensure business continuity," said Scott Devens, CEO at Untangle.

Devens touted technologies with multi-layered network security tools and hybrid network infrastructures, including SD-WAN, to avoid large-scale network vulnerabilities for organizations of all sizes. Untangle sells an SD-WAN router among its security wares.