HP Enterprise Security Edition is now available. In addition to protecting against malicious software, this solution also picks up on hardware and firmware based threats.
The expansion of HP’s security portfolio resembles that of its competitors. In recent months, Dell and Lenovo have also strengthened their protection of business PCs to protect physical devices better. At HP, the same motivation has led to a new offering: continuous protection against otherwise hard-to-detect cyber threats.
Hybrid threat
HP explains that today, hardware manipulation can reach far beyond the office. Where previously the focus was primarily on protecting corporate networks, this has been forced to expand to endpoint security in the workplace. But these days, the workplace can be virtually anywhere.
IT service providers are therefore concerned. More than half of them report that PCs, laptops, and printers cannot be verified easily. Malicious firmware is also complicated to detect with a software solution before it causes a problem. Moreover, users of this attack technique are extra dangerous.
Dr. Ian Pratt, Global Head of Security for Personal Systems at HP, explains: “Physical attacks are riskier and more difficult to execute, so they tend to be targeted and organized – for example, as part of a nation-state campaign or corporate espionage. But the lucrative market for selling access to corporate networks means that more opportunistic attacks – such as briefly connecting a Thunderbolt device to an unattended PC – can be worth the risk to a cybercriminal.”
Different implementation
Each PC maker offers a slightly different solution. For example, Dell works with CrowdStrike, and Lenovo can use SentinelOne security. HP keeps it in-house with the Enterprise Security Edition. Firmware Lock works with HP Sure Admin to allow access to a PC only through the latter. Platform Certifications monitor the authenticity of the delivered BIOS version, firmware, PCIe devices, and TPM 2.0 module. Sure Start Virtualization Protection also acts as a protective wall, in this case against rogue Thunderbolt/USB-C/PCIe attacks.
Also read: Lenovo launches ThinkShield Firmware Assurance: security at the deepest level