Remote working isn’t as simple as sending your employee off with a laptop to use a home Internet connection. Companies need to secure the network so every employee can work securely and reliably. When law firm, Harbottle & Lewis, experienced a sudden shift to remote working due to the pandemic, it needed to find a solution which could secure its remote network. Absolute Software’s Secure Access solution, delivered with partner, Appurity, improved the remote work experience.
Absolute Software’s Secure Access solution, delivered with partner, Appurity, provided secure remote access and reliable connectivity for Harbottle & Lewis employees – both in the office and remote working.
The global COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly changed the nature of network and endpoint security as it mandated a sudden and accelerated shift to 100% remote work. Few organisations were prepared for the change, and many continue to struggle to effectively protect endpoints and remote connections in today’s largely hybrid work environments.
The trend of work from anywhere remains a significant hurdle for IT teams to navigate. Insights from Absolute Software indicate that 97% of surveyed IT experts believe that remote workers are exposed to increased risk, with nearly half (47%) claiming the risk to be high or extremely high.
The challenge
In 2020, more than 200 employees from London law firm, Harbottle & Lewis LLP, were forced into remote working, creating a barrier of communication between staff and increasing its cyber-risk due to its expanded threat surface with devices logging on from a wide range of locations.
The company had been serving media, entertainment and technology clients for over 60 years but had to quickly adapt to ensure its servicing remained at a first-class standard.
Its traditional office environment was no longer fit for purpose in a remote working world, requiring an overhaul of its IT strategy to support the new work from anywhere model and ensure secure access and reliable connectivity for employees regardless of where they were.
“As with every other firm, at the start of the pandemic we went from one office to over 230 remote worker offices. Our existing VPN solution worked but was not user-friendly and would drop without employees knowing,” said Charlie Laing, Director of Information Technology at Harbottle & Lewis.
The company’s unreliable legacy VPN was resulting in decreased productivity and lost billable hours, and a lack of visibility was preventing IT from diagnosing critical network issues.
Harbottle & Lewis was not alone in its challenges with relying on a VPN to grant remote employees access to corporate systems and data. Absolute Software’s analysis shows that VPNs may only be working effectively on 72% of devices, on average. Rather than boost productivity, outdated VPN solutions have created productivity challenges for users and massive support challenges for IT teams.
The solution
Harbottle & Lewis needed a solution which would grant its IT team greater visibility to effectively support its distributed workforce as well as improving its end-user employee experience.
To deliver the solution, Harbottle & Lewis was introduced to Absolute Secure Access by valued partner, Appurity, a company providing cybersecurity solutions and services for mobile infrastructure and applications across the legal sector.
Absolute Secure Access includes Absolute VPN, which provides security and confidentiality for data as well as optimising streaming with resilient network sessions; Absolute ZTNA, creating a context-based authorisation system with network visibility through zero trust network access; and Absolute Insights for Network, offering diagnostic and experience monitoring capabilities across endpoints and the network.
Appurity knew the strengths of Absolute’s solution, a reliable and resilient connection, visibility across networks and improved experience for remote workers, and was able to deliver a trial to Harbottle & Lewis to match its requirements.
After a successful trial period, Harbottle & Lewis replaced its legacy VPN solution with Absolute Secure Access as its go-to provider, bolstered by the level of support Absolute was able to provide throughout the process.
Absolute Software and Appurity were able to deliver on the two core needs of Harbottle & Lewis: ensuring a reliable and resilient connection and improving user experience.
The outcome
With the continued distributed nature of today’s workforces, it is critical for organisations to have protocols in place to verify each device connecting to their corporate network each time that device connects. The answer requires a balance between protection from incoming threats and over blocking devices which will ultimately hinder staff productivity.
Once Absolute Secure Access was implemented, Harbottle & Lewis was able to gain the visibility it needed to effectively troubleshoot and diagnose remote workforce issues, including poor connectivity caused by home networks. The solution was able to support and optimise a new work from anywhere model through the pandemic and is now able to support flexible hybrid working while ensuring its cyber posture remains resilient.
The solution also led to an improved employee experience with employees able to seamlessly connect from any location, without the fears of being disconnected from their network during important tasks. Absolute Secure Access has helped Harbottle & Lewis employees stay connected no matter where they are.
“We knew Absolute Secure Access could help us improve the remote work experience, provide us with better visibility and ensure a seamless end-user experience while we were working from home. The Appurity team has played a key role in enabling this for us,” said Laing.
Steve Whiter, Director of Appurity, said: “Our work with Harbottle & Lewis demonstrates once again our expertise in the legal sector. Absolute is a brilliant partner and has enabled the firm’s shift to a new way of working long-term.”
Conclusion
A work from anywhere world brings a host of benefits for both employers and employees, granting greater flexibility and autonomy over work life, but it also increases the cyber-risk for all involved.
By future-proofing, Harbottle & Lewis has enhanced its employee experience and peace of mind over the security of its data. Productivity has seen an increase within the company and the solutions will plug what previously left it susceptible to potential data leaks and attacks across its increased threat surface.
For 30 years, Absolute has remained poised to strengthen cyber-resiliency for all companies, becoming the only provider of truly intelligent, self-healing security solutions and shall continue working with others in the face of growing and ever-changing cyberthreats.
Achi Lewis, Area Vice President of EMEA for Absolute Software, added: “One of our most important go-to-market objectives is to identify partners who can diagnose customer challenges and make expert recommendations on how to solve those challenges. Appurity worked with Harbottle & Lewis and our team at Absolute to ensure we delivered the right solutions to improve its cyber-resilience amid a challenging threat landscape and optimise its employee experience to ensure maximum productivity.”
