Three security concerns that should be on every CIO’s radar

It’s no secret the ever-evolving threat landscape is an increasing concern for IT leaders. Security management was named as the number one area of focus for CIOs this year, according to Foundry’s 2025 State of the CIO report. However, businesses now have an opportunity to seamlessly strengthen their defences with Windows 11’s built-in tools and HP Wolf Security.

Windows 11 provides solid baseline security not just through established features like Microsoft Defender and Defender Smart Screen, but through newer additions such as Trusted Boot, Enhanced Phishing Protection and Hypervisor Enforced Code Integrity (HVC). These tools, baked into the core OS, deliver robust protection against intrusion, malware and phishing attacks.

Yet today’s threat levels still demand more. Sophos’s 2025 Annual Threat Report [1] shows rises in remote ransomware attacks and attacks through business email compromise or compromised credentials. Enterprises need protection that goes even further, and the Windows 11 migration is also an opportune moment to deliver the enhanced security they need.

Physical security still counts

Around 81% of data breaches involve external actors, according to Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigation Report [2]. Yet, 19% involve employees or partners, motivated by espionage or financial gain, while enterprise laptops are still lost or stolen. All this makes it crucial that businesses secure the physical device.

This is why HP devices include HP Tamper Lock to detect and block sophisticated attacks based on hardware-level access, and  HP Protect and Trace to locate missing PCs, lock them remotely and – if necessary – erase all data. Meanwhile, features built into HP BIOSphere Gen 6 protect ports against malicious USB drives or data exfiltration.

At the end of a device’s lifecycle, HP Secure Erase can sanitise HDDs and SSDs before recycling, closing down another vulnerability that could lead to a data breach.

Threat containment remains key

Humans make mistakes and click on links they shouldn’t. Meanwhile, hackers are growing more sophisticated in their attempt to steal credentials, partly thanks to generative AI. Recent HP Wolf Security Threat Insights reports found a growth in malware infections through Scalable Vector Graphics images, PDF documents, HTML files, email attachments and even fake CAPTCHA challenges [3]. Criminals are also targeting users with privileged access to systems and company data, including system administrators, database admins and call centre staff.

HP Wolf Security can help through tools like HP Sure Sense and HP Sure Click.  Sure Sense provided AI-powered malware detection and protection capabilities, while Sure Click isolates high-risk content within micro Virtual Machines, protect the device, data and user credentials from attack. Meanwhile, HP Sure Access provides additional security when privileged users access sensitive systems. High-risk tasks are automatically walled off inside their own micro VM, where they’re protected from intrusion. Even if the PC and OS are compromised, data and credentials remain locked down.

Resilience reduces risks and downtime

With threats evolving and new vulnerabilities emerging, no network, infrastructure or device is entirely impervious to attack. This makes it critical that threats are contained through technologies like HP Sure Sense, Sure Click and Sure Access, and that systems are resilient enough to fend off attacks at OS level and below, then recover rapidly.

HP BIOSphere Gen 6 and HP Sure Start protect device firmware from both accidental errors and malicious attacks, ensuring devices start up with an authentic BIOS or self-heal automatically. HP Sure Admin enables safeguarded access to firmware configurations for support personnel, either remotely or in-person, while HP Sure Recovery leverages HP’s Endpoint Security Controller to protect and safeguard recovery settings. It can enable safe reinstallation of devices with the latest OS image, and reach devices remotely when beyond the corporate network. It can even perform a secure, automatic recovery when no OS is found.

Together with Windows 11’s built-in tools, HP Wolf Security delivers comprehensive, full-stack protection and resilience.

You can find out more about all these features from HP’s interactive presentation here.

For more information about how HP Wolf can help protect your business click here.

[1] Sophos 2025 Annual Threat Report, April 2025, https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2025/04/16/the-sophos-annual-threat-report-cybercrime-on-main-street-2025/

[2] Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigation Report, April 2025, https://www.verizon.com/business/en-gb/resources/reports/dbir/

[3] HP Wolf Security Threat Insights Report, March 2025 and January 2025, https://threatresearch.ext.hp.com/hp-wolf-security-threat-insights-report-march-2025/