HP Wolf Connect to secure connection to offline and powered down PCs

HP has announced its IT management connectivity and security solution Wolf Connect will now provide a secure connection to powered down and offline PCs.

Announced at HP’s Amplify Partner Conference in Chicago, HP unveiled that Wolf Protect and Trace with Wolf Connect will be a “world first software service capable of locating, locking and erasing a PC remotely, even when it’s turned off or disconnected from the Internet.”

This capability will better allow IT teams to manage a dispersed hybrid workforce, protect sensitive data on the move and lower costs by reducing the need for PC remediation or replacement.

“There's other players that offer a breadth of security solutions, but there's no one like HP locking down the end point device. And that's going to be the key differentiation,” HP Australian commercial channel director, Chelsea Rossney, told CRN Australia.

“It will differentiate in zero trust. A lot of other solutions are really cloud based security solutions. But with HP having Wolf in each device that runs in zero trust, that really is a big differentiator that others can’t provide," HP ANZ senior director of personal systems, Ken Maher, said.

HP Wolf Connect uses a cellular-based network connectivity and will reduce the time needed for IT teams to resolve support tickets, mitigate potential breaches and optimise asset management

“IT teams need a better way to deal with the increase in lost or stolen devices,” HP global head of security for personal systems Dr Ian Pratt said.

“Before today, solutions relied on PCs being on or connected to the internet," Pratt added.

“This is particularly crucial in industries where devices may contain PII (personally identifiable information) or intellectual property.”

“By adding Wolf Connect to HP Wolf Protect and Trace, teams can accurately report where and when devices were lost, and how long it took to lock or erase them.”

HP ANZ’s new managing director Brad Pulford told CRN Australia that HP Protect and Trace is “a great opportunity for partners.”

“It's both software enforced and hardware enforced," Pulford said.

"If you think about the end point solution, everything from print to PC, Protect and Trace ensures that if there's a breach for whatever reason, you can protect and trace the particular device as you start uncovering these threats,” he added.

“It can be complimentary to some of the security vendors they're working with today. Those others are protecting a network and [HP] is actually outside to those endpoints," Rossney continued.

HP said the increasing threat from ransomware to hybrid workers signalled the need for these new cybersecurity strategies and security tools.

It highlighted that a HP Wolf Security study found that 82 per cent of security leaders operating a hybrid work model had gaps in their organisation’s security posture

“Hybrid work has made remote management at scale more complex, yet more essential,” Pratt continued.

This follows similar comments made by Pulford, who spoke to CRN Australia two weeks ago, and highlighted how the hybrid work story is changing HP’s offerings.

“The cloud has helped but hasn’t solved IT’s ability to manage devices that are powered down or offline." 

"HP Wolf Connect’s highly resilient connection opens new doors to remote device management, enabling efficient and effective management of dispersed workforces,” Pratt said.

“The shift to hybrid work requires a move away from old perimeter-focused thinking. To close gaps, organisations must put the endpoint front and centre of any security strategy.”

“Adopting hardware-enforced security features and protection above, in, and below the OS – such as application isolation – will be key for protecting users without impinging on the freedoms that hybrid work allows,” Pratt concluded.

HP’s survey also revealed that 4 in 5 security leaders have increased their cybersecurity budget for hybrid workers in 2023, deploying different tools and policies to protect these employees.

Amelia Norris attended the HP Amplify Partner Conference as a guest of HP.