Telecommuting: How To Create A Distributed Workforce Without Increasing Security Risks

Teleworking is imposed on companies. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of a working model that is gaining followers daily. Despite its numerous advantages, it also has its downside. Companies have to deal with a considerable increase in security threats that, in addition, are increasingly more coordinated and sophisticated. The solution? HP Wolf Security is a new security model for devices that adapts to the needs of the future of work.

Telecommuting is no longer a utopia. The pandemic has accelerated this work model that is gaining more and more followers (according to a LinkedIn study, 50% of workers want to continue working remotely), thanks to the innumerable advantages it brings in terms of time savings, and costs, or reconciliation.

In addition, companies’ fears of teleworking are disappearing after verifying that productivity was not reduced during the pandemic. Everything seems to indicate that 2022 will be consolidating both remote work and hybrid environments.

Security issues

Although teleworking does not imply a loss of competitiveness or productivity on the part of the employees, it does entail a more than considerable increase in security threats.

The motives? The boundaries between work and personal life have blurred, and more and more people use the same device in both areas. A study by HP Wolf Security reveals that 46% of employees use their work laptops for personal matters, 71% access more company data from home and more frequently than before the pandemic, 39% access corporate data from personal devices, and 30% have allowed someone else to use their work device.

Cybercriminals have become aware of this increased vulnerability and are now targeting home workers with malware campaigns that use social engineering. Some attacks have also gained coordination and sophistication.

This has added further pressure to IT security teams who have seen the number of phishing attacks and the use of infected printers increase.

Moreover, the vast majority of IT decision-makers, specifically 91%, believe that device security has become as important as network security, noting that they spend more time on device security now than two years ago. 45% consider that their company is not fully prepared for teleworking.

Also Read: Main Safety Tips For Teleworking

Zero Trust

Employees are taking more risks than they do in offices. Given this reality, how can you create a future distributed and hybrid workforce without exposing the company to a higher level of risk? The answer is simple: you have to bet on a zero-trust policy. Companies should not trust anything implicitly, access to resources should be evaluated based on the context, and this does not have to apply only to each device but to different elements of the device itself, such as firmware, application security, the integrity of the operating system and the account or user accessing the data.

Zero trust means acting as if a data security breach is inevitable or has already occurred. It requires strict verification and the application of the least access privileges on each user request.

HP Wolf Security, the solution

Based on the principle of zero trust, HP Wolf Security is the portfolio of secure-by-design computers and printers, hardware-enforced security software, and device security services. Its goal is to help businesses of all types and sizes cope with an increasingly complex and insecure landscape and defend against the myriad of new attacks and risks associated with an increasingly distributed way of life.

How? Through providing defense-in-depth and enhanced protection, privacy, and threat intelligence, collecting data on devices to help protect the business as a whole.

HP’s proposal incorporates different solutions that adapt to the needs of each type of company and employee. For example, HP Wolf Enterprise Security is geared toward large businesses or companies with built-in security solutions but needs an extra layer.

With HP Wolf Enterprise Security, companies will be able to protect critical applications thanks to HP Sure Click; they will be able to stop malware by containing and isolating threats; will quickly recover from remote firmware attacks, and reduce the pressure on the IT department; In addition, they will take advantage of threat telemetry to turn a traditional weak point (computers and printers) into a source of information that helps better understand the dangers facing the company.

HP Wolf Security Pro, on the other hand, is the ideal solution for those SMEs that either have overloaded computers or do not have IT resources. These types of businesses will be able to count on a solution that integrates micro virtualization-based threat containment, next-generation antivirus-based malware prevention, and identity protection. All integrated with HP hardware security capabilities to deliver superior protection that’s easy for IT to buy, deploy, and operate.

Also Read: The cloud: The Great Trend To Facilitate Teleworking