The News: HP hosted security analysts in New York City for an in-depth discussion of its Wolf Security portfolio, go-to-market strategy, and future direction.
Secure Your Devices: HP Wolf Security Suite
Analyst Take: HP launched Wolf Security, an endpoint security suite, in May 2021. While initially a response to the exponential and overnight surge in work from home activity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the endpoint security push only continues to grow more relevant in tandem with the onslaught of cybercrime.
Wolf adds value-add software and service competencies on top of HP’s longstanding hardware-grounded security capabilities that are built into its PCs and printers, in order to create integrated solution offerings that endpoint-related vulnerabilities. Creating a dedicated brand for its umbrella of security capabilities is helping HP to carve out mindshare against the topic of ransomware and cyber-resiliency – both of which are C-Level priorities for organizations of all industries and sizes, across the world.
Security has long been an important factor in HP’s device development; as noted by leadership including Boris Balacheff, HP Chief Technologist for Security Research and Innovation, the company has embedded an endpoint security controller into the motherboard CPUs of its chips for 10 years now.
Specifically, the Wolf Security portfolio includes the full suite of HP’s Sure-branded security offerings, including:
- Sure Start BIOS protection
- Sure Access and Sure Click, isolation technologies that are fully compatibility with a heterogeneous fleet, including non-HP devices:
- Sure Access protects applications and data from a variety of malware and other cyberattacks that may be present on a user’s device. These include keylogging, screen capture, memory tampering, and network interception such as man-in-the-middle attacks. Specifically, a micro-virtual machine (uVM) is created to form a virtual air gap that isolates the application and its data from the host PC’s operating system (OS). The capability is CPU-enforced and it avoids the need for deployment of specific privileged access PCs or workstations.
- Sure Click protects the user’s host PC’s data, OS, and network from potentially risky activities such as opening email attachments and files downloaded from a browser or stored on a USB drive. Similar to the Sure Access service, these risky activities are conducted inside of a uVM that is isolated from the rest of the user’s device. The user can still browse and interact with the untrusted document natively, as they would with any other document, reducing friction and supporting their productivity. It is worth noting that the ability to support a secure browser that operates inside the uVM has the additional benefit of protecting against credential phishing attacks.
- Sure Sense machine learning (ML)-based detection of malware and abnormal behavior that could indicate compromise.
It also includes a remote PC management solution called Wolf Connect, which notably allows even PCs that are powered down and disconnected from Wi-Fi or wired LANs to be located, locked, and erased. Wolf Connect uses a cellular radio module connected to the embedded endpoint security controller previously mentioned for this functionality.
Wolf Security software and services are packaged into a consumer-grade offering, as well as three commercial service tiers:
- HP Wolf Security for Business, which is included de facto with all HP business PCs.
- HP Wolf Pro Security, which is targeted at small and midsize businesses (SMBs).
- HP Wolf Enterprise Security, which is targeted at large enterprises and government entities.
The Futurum Group notes strengths of the HP Wolf approach include the ability to detect and contain a range of threats – including the ability to complement what antivirus and endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools are identifying, and the ability to extend threat detection to the realm of printer devices. One of HP’s biggest challenges has been, and remains, raising visibility of the potential threat of endpoint-related breaches. The research arm of Wolf Security will continue to play an important role moving forward in driving awareness of evolving threats pertaining to the full range of commercial PC and printer devices commonly in use by enterprises.
Given the prevalence of social engineering-related attacks such as phishing, the industry as a whole tends to hone in on end users as the vulnerability. At the summit, the HP security team recognized that it is the user’s job to click on links and download attachments. Capabilities like Sure Click help to reduce this inherent risk.
Looking ahead, HP has the opportunity to utilize threat intelligence and AI alongside automation to address the customers’ growing need to adopt a more proactive and preventative approach to cyber-resiliency. Ongoing research and innovation will be necessity to keep up with how regularly attackers are evolving their approaches for effectiveness. Customers are increasingly adopting as-a-service delivery to simplify their day-to-day operations, so it will become increasingly important for HP to offer flexible and cloud-hosted delivery for Wolf Security solutions.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
Krista Case brings over 15 years of experience providing research and advisory services and creating thought leadership content. Her vantage point spans technology and vendor portfolio developments; customer buying behavior trends; and vendor ecosystems, go-to-market positioning, and business models. Her work has appeared in major publications including eWeek, TechTarget and The Register.
