Executive Survey:
Growth in Remote Work Fuels Zero Trust Investment

2020 saw a gigantic shift of workers to a virtual, online environment. Ping Identity’s Executive Survey of over 1,300 senior executives across five countries suggests this shift will change how companies and organizations view their information technology resources and infrastructure for years to come.¹ According to our survey, the “out-of-office” workforce is sizable and likely here to stay.

As a result, despite challenging international economic conditions, executives are significantly increasing their investments in IT and information security, both in staff and technology. A main focus is advancing identity security capabilities. At the same time, business leaders are also working to consolidate and rationalize their workforce identity procedures. They expect these combined efforts will help address issues of security and compliance as well as employee productivity, furthering the delivery of a superior experience regardless of where work is being done.

Key Global Takeaways

1. 47% of executives expect one quarter or more of their workforce will be spending three or more days away from the central office in 2022.

2. 82% of executives have deployed some type of Zero Trust element, spanning from piloting an approach to having an established, mature model.

3. 71% of executives believe their company’s investment in Zero Trust will increase over the next 12 months.

4. As a result of the pandemic, 37% increased the size of their IT team, with 70% believing the responsibility of security falls

   either completely or mostly on IT.

5. 55% have invested in new identity security capabilities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

6. 60% have increased their spending on strategic identity-related investments as a result of remote working and 69% of executives expect investment in IAM capabilities to increase over the next 12 months.

7. 64% of executives estimate that over one half of their workforce is currently using MFA as a result of the pandemic. Only one third (38%) of executives made the same claim before the pandemic.

8. 50% of executives said that failed login attempts were up by more than 25 percent.

9. 85% of executives agree that identity security technologies are critical to their company’s mobile and overall user experience. 

The events of 2020 saw companies supporting a sudden and massive jump in employees working remotely, where high-speed internet access and video conferencing technologies were crucial. We asked executives what percentage of their employees they expect will be working remotely a year from now. Among leaders in the five countries surveyed, nearly one half said that they expect one quarter or more of their workforce will be spending three or more days away from the central office in 2022.
 

As the pandemic spread and employees shifted to remote working, IT departments said they were providing new, safe passwords for home routers and Wi-Fi networks (44%), helping tether mobile devices for backup access (42%) and supplying additional routers (30%).
 

Overall, the majority of executives (82%) said they have deployed some type of Zero Trust element, including piloting principles of Zero Trust, actively deploying or enhancing principles of Zero Trust, and having established mature Zero Trust principles.
 

Additionally, 7 in 10 executives believe their investment in Zero Trust will increase over the next 12 months.
 

The dramatic jump in the out-of-office workforce appears to have prompted business executives to elevate information technology as a strategic priority (if it wasn’t already). Despite the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase in the remote workforce led to well over one third of the executives surveyed increasing the size of their IT team.
 

All this could be due to the IT department feeling the “heat” of responsibility for business performance. With employee productivity and customer engagement being increasingly online experiences, IT departments are bearing greater responsibility for both security and business performance. Seven in 10 executives said either the responsibility of security is the full burden of IT teams or the burden mostly falls on the IT team. 
 

Executives are focusing their security strategy on new identity security tools. Over one half of the executives surveyed said that as a result of the pandemic, they have invested in new identity security capabilities.
 

In addition, among the five countries surveyed, well over one half have increased their spending on strategic identity-related investments such as identity and access management (IAM), multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO). 
 

Over two thirds of executives said they would be increasing the IAM capabilities of their workforce—ranging from a high of 79% of IT departments in the U.S. to a low of 63% of IT departments in the UK.
 

Among the countries surveyed, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, over one third (38%) of executives estimate that over one half of their employees were using multi-factor authentication. However, the pandemic has drastically increased the usage of MFA, with nearly two thirds (64%) estimating that over one half of their employees are now using MFA.
 

The survey also asked executives to rate the effectiveness of 12 different elements in the prevention of cyberattacks. Although there was significant variation by country, executives tended to rank VPNs, MFA and next-generation firewalls high in effectiveness. The elements that tended to be ranked lower in effectiveness were micro segmentation, least privileged access and user behavior analytics.
 

As executives work to ensure organizations are equipped for workforce adjustments with an increased focus on security, breaking down identity silos is critical in achieving their aims. As a result, executives said IT departments are consolidating and centralizing their workforce identity authentication procedures. Nearly one half (46%) of IT departments are creating a unified profile view that syncs with multiple data sources. One third (33%) said they plan to eliminate legacy stores and consolidate employee profiles and credentials.
 

Identity security needs for these enterprises are centered around multi-cloud deployments, while still providing coverage for on- premises applications and delivering superior customer experience.
 

Beyond cybersecurity issues, across the five countries surveyed, over one half said their investments in identity management were also tied to improving worker productivity, compliance and the general user experience.
 

With regard to worker productivity, approximately two thirds of businesses across all five countries said that since employees started working remotely, they have seen a moderate or significant increase in failed login attempts. In three of the five countries, over one half of those surveyed said that failed login attempts were up by more than 25 percent. 
 

Identity verification across applications is not isolated to one application or one country, as everyone is feeling the impact of remote work. A strong majority (85%) of executives agree identity security technology is critical for mobile and user experience.

As virtual and online environments continue to be the norm among the corporate workforce, IT executives and departments will be the champions of identity security in 2021 and beyond. Equipping organizations and end users with the tools and security capabilities to increase productivity while preventing security breaches will be critical to the success of the sizable remote workforce.

To learn more about how to achieve your digital transformation goals with Zero Trust, download our white paper Zero Trust: Thinking Outside the Perimeter. 

Ping Identity surveyed global enterprises to gain their perspectives on the impact of the pandemic in 2020 and beyond. Ping Identity commissioned Market Cube to conduct a survey of 1,350 C-suite and senior executives in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia who work for companies of 1,000 or more. Over 4 in 5 respondents were either CEOs, CIOs or CTOs.

The geographic breakdown of survey respondents is as follows:

• United States: n=300
  
• United Kingdom: n=300
  
• Germany: n=300
  
• France: n=300
  
• Australia: n=150
  

The survey was conducted online from December 15, 2020 to January 1, 2021.

1 The survey included 1,350 executives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia. 83% of respondents were either CEOs, CIOs or CTOs.

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