How PC Hardware Security Rounds Out a Holistic Cybersecurity Strategy
Companies must ask themselves what role silicon-assisted security plays in their larger system security and how they can strengthen that connection. See how hardware security impacts reputation and the bottom line.
Tackle Cybersecurity Threats with an End-to-End Approach to Security
The savviest enterprises understand that an end-to-end security approach that includes hardware, network, OS, and endpoint software is critical to a comprehensive endpoint security solution. However, most enterprises today don’t follow this advice. Too often they focus on network, OS, and policy-level protections while ignoring the role that hardware security plays in establishing a strong foundation for endpoint security. In March 2022, Intel commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate perceptions and strategies around hardware-level device security. Learn what global security leaders had to say.
Forrester’s in-depth survey of IT decision-makers about hardware security yielded several important recommendations. Learn where to start and how to implement hardware-based security into your technology stack.
On average, security breaches cost firms 4.2% of their revenue, take 1,187 hours to recover from, and decrease employee productivity.
40% of respondents say as a result of a breach, they invested in hardware-level security. Yet nearly 2/3 agree they are still at risk with their current hardware approach, indicating a need to take a more holistic approach.
There is a misconception about the complexity of matching the right hardware security with the right software security. Even with multiple teams handling endpoint security, 51% believe it’s too complex to manage in-house without relying on third-party providers.
Hardware-level embedded security makes for an improved employee experience, with easier security protocols, troubleshooting, and better access to IT. This trickles down to customer experience, with 84% of respondents indicating effective hardware-level security increases customer trust.
4 Key Takeaways
Start with a strong device procurement process. The easiest way to implement hardware security is to buy devices that already have it embedded. Many OEM device manufacturers will partner with silicon providers to enable specific capabilities that work for their organization. Include these requirements within RFPs from the start.
Link the benefits of hardware to anywhere-work. The only way to effectively manage offline endpoints not connected to a corporate network is through hardware-level features. Embedded hardware protections will also help endpoints stay more secure as they are shipped to remote workers’ home offices.
Deploy hardware security in tandem with device refreshes. Begin leveraging device-level security because many of the newest operating systems rely on the most recent hardware innovations to optimize security, management, and user experience. Organizations can benefit from increased protections on both the operating system and hardware levels if they conduct both upgrades simultaneously.
Extend hardware security to non-IT purchases. Provide a recommendations list to business purchasers that includes devices with advanced hardware protections. To sell these groups on the value of these devices, focus on the business-related benefits that can be supplied via the right security solutions.
“Respondents understand the need to adjust their security strategies to include hardware-level protections rooted deep in silicon for an in-depth defense strategy that includes PCs, but the complexity of changing that strategy is keeping them in the dark and vulnerable to continued breaches.”
Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper, August 2022
“Embedded hardware protections will help endpoints stay more secure as they are shipped to remote workers’ home offices.”
Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper, August 2022