Nomadic cybersecurity – protecting those working from home
There’s no doubt about it, COVID-19 has changed the way we live, socialise and work. Outside healthcare, one of the biggest changes caused by the pandemic has been the rapid transition from the office to the home office. Although the new normal of working from home has many advantages, it also raises new challenges – especially when it comes to cybersecurity and data privacy. Addressing this challenge is the EU-funded LPS project, which is developing an innovative cybersecurity solution for the new normal of working from home. “At the office, our computers and data are protected by robust security systems and in-house servers,” says Mickael Leal, Allpriv CEO and LPS project coordinator. “But as you disconnect from the office server and connect to your home’s internet or other public connection, you become more exposed to digital threats.”
A marketable solution?
Allpriv, a French data privacy company, is developing what it calls ‘the next generation of nomadic cybersecurity’. “We take the large security stacks found in the office’s server room and shrink the entire thing down into a portable hardware format,” explains Leal. “This hardware can then be easily embedded into advanced blockchain, artificial intelligence and several other protection techniques.” Allpriv firmly believes that its solution represents a step change in cybersecurity – one that will disrupt how data is protected outside the traditional office. But is it a marketable solution? With the support of EU funding, the company aimed to find out. The project conducted a comprehensive beta test involving over 100 users coming from businesses of all sizes – from local SMEs all the way up to the second largest bank in Europe. The test had companies compare the functionality of the Allpriv solution with the legacy solutions they were currently using. “What we discovered is that not only does our solution significantly improve security, it’s also easier for IT teams to deploy and lets users connect faster,” adds Leal. “Perhaps even more importantly, the testers were very enthusiastic about using our solution – encouraging news as we move towards commercialisation.”
Accelerating towards a commercial launch
With the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a greater need for work from home cybersecurity solutions than ever. Seeing an opportunity, Allpriv has leveraged the results from the LPS project to accelerate the product’s commercial launch. “Backed by the confidence gained during our beta testing, we have been able to quickly launch mass production,” concludes Leal. “As a result, the market will soon have an answer to the cybersecurity challenges created by the new normal of working from home.”
Keywords
LPS, cybersecurity, working from home, data privacy, COVID-19, blockchain, artificial intelligence
