The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the work landscape as well as the requirements for companies to keep their systems protected, Palo Alto Networks President of Japan and Asia Pacific Simon Green said on Tuesday.

Digital transformation, which also enabled remote and hybrid work, has opened a “highly distributed” environment for attackers, Green said.

“The need for digital transformation was elevated…At the same time every employee was sent home. The attack servers from every organizations shifted from a building to a highly distributed environment,” he said.

“All of a sudden, from an attacker's point of view, I only have to get into one building, which is potentially a difficult situation, now you can get into homes, home networks, clouds,” he added.

This makes today’s landscape, a “very challenging time” from a cybersecurity perspective, he said.

Companies were urged to not only invest in innovation but also ramp up their security measures to keep fraudsters, who are also getting more sophisticated, at bay.

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