Editorial

HP’s CISO: Security is “non-negotiable for businesses”

Speaking at HP Amplify 2023, Joanna Burkey, outlined the threats facing organisations, alongside new HP Wolf security launches

Posted 5 April 2023 by Christine Horton


The last few years have brought a pace of change to the threat landscape rarely seen before. That was one of the messages from HP’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Joanna Burkey.

Burkey was speaking at the HP Amplify Partner Conference 2023 in Chicago. She admitted the fact that HP’s CISO was on stage addressing channel partners “underlines how important this topic is for us and for your customers. Security truly is a non-negotiable for doing business today.”

Burkey said the threat landscape is more complex than ever. This is due in part to an end to perimeter-focused thinking with the rise of hybrid work and an increased reliance on the cloud.

“We don’t see perimeters any longer,” she said. “The idea that there is a perimeter is now a false thinking that can lead us into feeling safe when we really shouldn’t feel.

Indeed, securing and managing the hybrid workforce is a top priority for organisations, according to new research from HP Wolf Security – HP’s security portfolio.

It found 82 percent of security leaders operating a hybrid work model have gaps in their organisation’s security posture, The global study of 1,492 security leaders found 61 percent say protecting their hybrid workers will get harder in the year ahead. Additionally, 70 percent say that hybrid work increases the risk of lost or stolen devices.

HP Wolf Connect

Another element adding to this complexity is the growing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, said Burkey. “We’ve seen how chaos in politics or in the economy will feed a crime ecosystem. Criminals and bad actors take advantage of times of chaos of times of uncertainty.

“The point for your customers, people like me, is we have to be incredibly intentional about what we do. We cannot boil this whole ocean, even if we wanted to. The investment isn’t there. The functionality isn’t there. We have to be very selective, very smart about where we focus to develop strategies that fit our companies and our enterprises at this time.”

Burkey said HP was augmenting its device portfolio with things like remote device control, enhanced firmware, biosecurity browser isolation and micro virtual machines (VMs). At the event, the vendor announced HP Wolf Connect, an IT management connectivity solution that enables IT to manage remote devices even when powered down or offline.

“All of these are tools that we layer on the endpoints provide much more resiliency, in particular against to the biggest threats we see today,” she said.

Using a cellular-based network, HP said Wolf Connect can reduce the time and effort needed to resolve support tickets, secure data from loss or theft to mitigate a potential breach and optimise asset management.

HP Wolf Protect and Trace

HP also unveiled Wolf Protect and Trace, which it said is the world’s first software service capable of locating, locking and erasing a PC remotely, even when it’s turned off or disconnected from the Internet. This can protect sensitive data on the move and helps lower IT costs by reducing the need for PC remediation or replacement.

The Home Office declared 469 lost and stolen devices between September 2021 and September 2022, with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) not far behind with 467 mobiles, tablets and USB devices unaccounted for.

“The groundbreaking part of Wolf Connect is it works even if devices are powered off, or they are not connected to the internet,” said Burkey. “That is absolutely amazing. I can tell you as a practitioner, when your customers hear about functionality like that, their eyes are going to light up.

“If you simply look at the job that an IT fleet management team has to do. Just imagine how much harder that job is when they can’t reach out and locate that device because it’s in the office once a week or in the office once a day. But now with Wolf Connect, we’re removing that friction because the state of or the location of the device doesn’t matter any longer.

“HP Protect and Trace that is specifically for security practitioners … Because it allows us to not only contact and manage a device, but it allows us to remotely lock and even remotely wipe that device if we need to. That means it’s not only a great fleet management tool, but it’s a great tool for the prevention of data loss during a breach and the prevention of an attack getting worse if it is successful.”