HP Wolf Security, the ally of SMEs against cyber attacks

As we told you a few days ago, the world of small and medium-sized businesses has recently observed a massive increase in digitalisation, thanks to factors such as the spread of broadband and the COVID-19 pandemic. Our country is in a good position if you look at the rate of digitalisation: according to 2023 research by ISTAT it is higher than the European average.

Digitalisation has undeniable and easy-to-identify advantages, such as the possibility of reaching a larger clientele, better flexibility from a working point of view (think for example of smart working and hybrid work), the ability to respond and adapt to the requests of the most demanding customers. rapid. But it also brings new challenges, e.g IT security it is one of the most important.

As our life becomes increasingly technological, threats and hacker attacks also increase: this is a fact on which practically all analytical sources, private and government, agree. A recent Eurobarometer report from the European Commission indicates that in 2023 more than one in three Italian SMEs (37%) has suffered at least one cyber attack – this is 9% more than the European average. And as time passes, the threats become more and more varied: once there was the “simple” virus, today we have to deal with ransomware, phishing attempts, scams, even intrusions into virtual meetings, between espionage and cyber- vandalism – and generative AI services like ChatGPT represent a new potential attack front that is largely still unexplored.

If it is true that in certain types of attacks the human factor is the predominant weak link (example: being deceived by a phishing attempt, password that is too weak or poorly kept, incorrect configuration of the video calling software…), we observe That In 35% of cases, hackers exploited a known software, hardware or network vulnerability, scenarios in which the normal user is effectively helpless and without the tools to react. This is also a figure well above the European average.

HP Wolf Security is a cybersecurity solution that can represent a valuable ally for SMEs obtain enterprise-level protection without having particularly advanced resources or infrastructure. It has been on the market for over three years and is formally cataloged as a protection system for the so-called endpoints, that is: those more personal devices, such as a laptop or a printer, which connect to the company network. It can be purchased and installed on any computer, even non-HP ones, but the ideal choice is HP “Wolf Security Edition” laptops, which in addition to already including it natively, have additional security features.

HP Wolf Security is integrated into the device at the hardware level; a key tool it relies on is the concept of “micro-VM” or micro-virtual machine. All potentially dangerous tasks, such as an internet browsing session or browsing files on an external USB stick, are performed in a special virtual machine isolated from the rest of the system.

Every data communicated between the micro-VM and the system is carefully analyzed and any threats blocked; this technology also relies on advanced security features of modern CPUs, Intel, and AMD, making it extremely difficult for malware to bypass the micro-VM’s limitations. Furthermore, every suspicious activity is meticulously recorded and analysed, including via external cloud servers, in order to guarantee the maximum level of security and at the same time the minimum incidence of false positives.

Process isolation via micro-VM is able to contain or limit the damage of many of the most common malware, including ransomware, which have no way to expand beyond the very limited confines of the memory area in which they are confined. This means that even if the worker falls into the traps of cybercriminals, it will not have a harmful impact on the company and gives the IT manager much more time to deal with a problem rather than manage an emergency.

Image generated with Copilot

Sure, not even the most advanced software in the world can stop a laptop from being stolen, but Wolf Security delivers very robust tools to protect data, which can be made inaccessible remotely and even deleted. The service also includes location technology; It is based on the HP Insight agent, which uses telemetry and analytics technology also used for the Active Care advanced support service.

Printers can also be a vector for infection of a corporate network, if not protected: between firmware updates and even the chips contained in cartridges and toners, the options for a determined hacker are many. The “Wolf Security Edition” printers have many protections in this sense: for example, they verify that the new firmware installed comes from HP and that it has not been tampered with, when necessary they use (even in the cartridges) read-only memories and therefore impossible to reprogram with malicious code, and use strong unique passwords, so an attack cannot use pre-determined generic credentials.

Through it all, Wolf Security remains a simple service to manage, even for those who are not super experts in IT security, plus the presence of numerous certified and assistance-enabled resellers allows you to have qualified support. For small and medium-sized businesses it can represent a valid solution to guarantee a level of security that was previously only achievable for enterprise users.

Article in collaboration with HP