HP Innovation Journal Special Edition: Security | Page 8
H P S E C U R IT Y I N N OVAT I O N
Software and network security are not enough anymore to protect endpoints
across an organization, we have to start from designing for security from
hardware up. This means that today choosing a device is a security decision.
Requiring any hardware purchase decision, be it a PC, a printer or any other
IoT device, to be recognized as a security decision, ensuring standards are
met, and even exceeded with state-of-the-art security that will help address
threats over the many years that the hardware will be deployed and in use.
In today’s threat landscape, choosing a hardware device
is clearly becoming a security decision. For too long,
organizations have relied on third-party software secu-
rity products to protect their devices. With hackers now
able to frequently bypass traditional network perimeter
security and antivirus programs on endpoints, it’s time
we consider the security of the hardware we purchase
as closely as our software and network security solu-
tions. This means that anyone who makes a hardware
purchasing decision—however small or large—will have
an influence on the security posture of the business
for years to come. The enterprise CISO, who usually
looks after the security of operations primarily, needs
to start getting involved much earlier at the IT equip-
ment and hardware procurement step: setting security
requirements and making sure that security is taken into
account as a key parameter of the purchasing decision.
Beyond the security of the devices themselves, the
endpoint security challenge for organizations lies with
security management. Organizations need to keep all
the devices on their network up to date with the latest
software and firmware, and in compliance with a good
security configuration policy. In addition, they need to
deploy, manage and monitor security software that’s
appropriate to their business needs. To protect the busi-
ness over the long run, they critically need to have a
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data and device recovery strategy, ensuring that they
can bring the infrastructure and the business back up
and running when things go wrong; as they will.
To top the list of challenges organizations are facing,
the cybersecurity talent pool is in tension, with a lack of
available expertise that is making it difficult for orga-
nizations to hire, afford, and retain security talent, let
alone specialists in device security, PC firmware, or
printer or other IoT configuration management. This
has led HP to invest in building up a security practice,
to be able to consult with customers with device secu-
rity assessments, for any device, PC or printer, HP and
non-HP, and to help them put in place the right manage-
ability tools and solutions, and ongoing compliance and
security management strategies to keep the business a
step ahead of the bad guys.
HP has been a leader in endpoint device security for
over two decades, pioneering research, driving secu-
rity standards with industry partners, and raising the
bar of personal computer and print security, with many
industry firsts. But this is only the beginning. Moving
forward, HP will strive to continually deliver the most
secure devices, along with the solutions and services to
help our customers use them securely. We are commit-
ted to leading security innovation and driving the entire
industry forward.