The COVID-19 pandemic suddenly transformed the way that we all work. Businesses around the world found themselves rapidly shifting to a remote work environment that required agile reconfiguration of systems and shifts in security policy. Cybersecurity teams scrambled to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data entrusted to their care while accommodating unprecedented remote work requirements.

Now that organizations have settled into these new work routines, it’s time to take a look at how these changes will shape future trends in the way that we work and how security teams can build controls that both facilitate remote work and foster a defense-in-depth approach to cybersecurity.

Let’s look at four major cybersecurity trends that will endure beyond the pandemic.

Endpoint security management has been a significant challenge for years, and the recent shift to remote work by many organizations in response to the coronavirus pandemic has only made the situation more complex. Today, IT and security professionals have even more to manage as users access sensitive data and conduct critical business activities from home.

The timing is good, then, for the emergence of secure access service edge: a new category of solutions designed to protect users — and their data — wherever each is located. Several security vendors have introduced solutions built around SASE (pronounced “sassy”), an architectural framework that places the edge wherever an organization’s devices and cloud services meet.