IT decision makers (ITDM) in small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are more concerned about cybersecurity today than they were before the Covid-19 pandemic, new research shows. An Avast survey says that the bigger the SME, the greater the concern, having surveyed 500 ITDMs in the UK and 500 in Germany, as well as 1.000 SME workers in the UK and 1.000 in Germany. Among SMEs with up to five employees, almost a third (32%) were concerned about the level of security in their organization, compared to 76% among those with 100 to 300 employees. The main driver for this level of concern, Avast noted, is the increasing number of employees working outside the office. Before the pandemic, 22% of workers and 27% of ITDMs were working remotely. Today, the number has increased to almost two-thirds (64%). With such a dispersed workforce, the network perimeter has grown considerably, according to the company, and securing it, difficult as it is today, has become a strategic priority for many SMEs. ITDMs are looking to overcome many challenges in their quest to secure their remote workforce. They are primarily concerned about employees who work with insecure connections and use personal devices for work, devices on which they do all kinds of risky things (for example, download pirated software or visit potentially dangerous websites). Additionally, employees working from home mean ITDMs have less visibility into their IT systems.