HP Beefs Up Its Enterprise Security Solutions

Amid the spectre of job cuts and huge losses, HP seems to be reinventing itself. As many aging hardware manufacturers have, the company is beginning to restructure its business and focus its efforts o...
HP Beefs Up Its Enterprise Security Solutions
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  • Amid the spectre of job cuts and huge losses, HP seems to be reinventing itself. As many aging hardware manufacturers have, the company is beginning to restructure its business and focus its efforts on providing quality B2B enterprise solutions.

    Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced today that it has updated its enterprise security solutions. Its updated offerings run the gamut from “intelligent” solutions for the public sector to comprehensive networked printer security.

    HP’s new focus for enterprise security is proactively protecting their clients, rather than waiting to respond to an attack. Sanjay Raja, director of product marketing for TippingPoint at Hewlett-Packard, told WebProNews that HP is recognizing customer concerns in three areas: cloud security, mobility, and big data.

    “The perimeter has gone away,” said Raja. This is a theme he returned to often, emphasizing that HP is now focusing on a more proactive approach to enterprise security. Raja pointed out that networks are beging to sprawl as mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous. He said HP is developing solutions that understand all the different, disparate parts of networks.

    HP has updated its ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager to version 6.0c to help protect a multitude of networked devices. ArcSight is HP’s security monitoring and compliance solution that identifies cyber threats across a network infrastructure and prioritizes security concerns.

    Alongside ArcSight is HP’s intrusion prevention system (IPS), TippingPoint NX. Raja calls TippingPoint NX a next-generation IPS. It adds deep packet traffic inspection and a modular architecture designed to scale automatically to threats. HP claims its new IPS will save companies both rack space and power costs.

    HP has also updated its public sector security offerings. This includes an update to its Assured Identity solution, which allows simple credential and access management. In addition to its identity and access controls, Raja stated that Assured Identity can help with the sharing of information for people who are properly credentialed.

    As for mobile, HP has announced a free mobile app for WebOs, iOS, and Android that monitors current and trending cyberthreats. The data used in the app is taken from HP’s Digital Vaccine Labs (DVLabs), HP’s award-winning security research lab. Raja said the app provides trending, monitoring, and real-time security threats. “It’s basically a kind of early-warning system,” said Raja.

    One of the more niche areas that HP is specializing in is enterprise security solutions for networked printers. Though not often thought of as a large security threat, Raja said that HP’s clients are seeing a growing number of attacks that use printers as an entry point. HP offers imaging and printing security assessments to minimize security risks, as well as an updated imaging and printing solution center that implements a policy-based solution.

    Printer intrusion is especially concerning for the healthcare industry, which uses printers for sensitive healthcare data. Raja pointed out that hospitals and doctors in the U.S. have to stay compliant with HIPAA, a law passed in 1996 that mandates certain security and privacy requirements with regards to patient health data.

    Raja said that HP’s Access Control Printing Solutions have been expanded specifically with the healthcare industry in mind. Aside from providing secure authentication and secure pull printing, it’s management tool provides metrics, password management, and ensures compatibility across the network.

    “Cybersecurity threats are growing exponentially, and without a proactive information risk management strategy, enterprise growth, innovation, and efficiencies are hindered,” said George Kadifa, executive vice president of HP Software.

    Verizon’s 2012 Data Breach Investigation Report backs up Kadifa’s claim, showing that intrusions are becoming more grassroots and political in their intent.

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