How safe are your devices when WFH?

There is no doubt COVID-19 has had a multitude of dramatic effects on business - one of the biggest changes and challenges of course, being the way hundreds of millions of employees around the world have been forced to work from home. A recent report commissioned by HP shows that:

? 82% of office workers worked from home more since the start of the pandemic

? 23% of office workers globally expect to predominately stay working from home post pandemic and

? 16% expect to split their time equally between home and office-based working post pandemic making a hybrid culture a very real option moving forward

Much of this was probably to be expected and won’t be anything new to most of you reading this. However a real consideration with this new hybrid way of working is the potential danger organizations face if they embrace the work from home culture without assessing how this amplifies the existing security threats. The volume of corporate and business data being accessed from home has risen substantially, including sensitive financial records, putting more information at risk. If I think about my small team as a micro example, we are working across multiple geographic locations, time zones and use around 30 different software programs and apps regularly on any given day. Any one of us has a number of blind spots and can be exposed at any given point. HP Wolf Security is a newly integrated portfolio of hardware, software, and services designed for this new normal. HP commissioned an interesting report that provides a multi-dimensional view of the security issues at play and combine findings from a global YouGov online survey of 8,443 office workers who have shifted to working from home. Some of the greatest threats found for us all to be aware of included:

? Security concerns: Merging work & personal on work laptop

? Increase in phishing related infections 54%

? Increase in web browser related infections 56%

? Compromised devices being used to infect the wider business 44%

? Compromised personal devices being used to access company and customer data 51%

? Users using unpatched machines 51%

? Compromised printers being used as an attack point 45%

If you’re a one-person team, it helps to take a look at devices that are secure by design so you can set-and-forget. A number of HP Business PCs have security features built into the device, such as HP Sure Click, which will help protect you from web, email and document-based security threats. Other features built-in include HP Sure Sense which provides access to the same advanced security tools that are typically only available for enterprises, using AI to detect and prevent malware threats in real-time.For medium-sized startups who may not have an IT department, or don’t want to overburden their one-man IT team, HP’s Wolf Pro Security service is a managed security service managed by HP’s cybersecurity professionals. It’s an option that gives employees the ability to work where they want, with the tools and apps they want, without compromising their productivity with restrictive IT policies.

These are just a few options from HP, and it depends on the size of your business and how exposed you are. There are some great products out there, so look into what level you need to stay cyber safe. To find out more, read more about the HP Wolf Security Report here .

#smallbusiness #SMB #HPambassador #HPAustralia