Extending PC Security While Easing IT Stress with VMware Carbon Black

As many of us settle into remote working routines, IT teams are settling into their new normal of servicing and securing a fleet of devices from afar. With this new way of working comes expanded attack surfaces, making it critical that organizations ensure their workers’ PCs are secure, and this starts below the operating system (OS).

Securing the lowest level of the PC stack – the BIOS – is vital to the overall security of the device, as well as your business, because a compromised BIOS can potentially provide an attacker with access to all data on the endpoint. Attackers are using new types of malware that can reinstall themselves by infiltrating the BIOS, so organizations need a more sophisticated way to not only protect their systems, but confidently verify their workers’ PCs have not been compromised below the OS. They need tools which provide this level of security visibility for every device, regardless of its location.

Dell Technologies is taking security measures a step further for our commercial PCs, which are already the most secure in the industry¹, by bringing Dell SafeBIOS Off-Host Verification together with VMware Carbon Black Cloud Audit and Remediation. This combination provides IT and security teams access and visibility to the BIOS health of their Dell PCs wherever employees are working.

Organizations using the VMware Carbon Black Cloud Audit and Remediation tool can now easily verify the BIOS status across their fleet of Dell devices from one, easy-to-use console. And, with Dell SafeBIOS Off-Host Verification, the integrity of the BIOS is verified in the cloud, versus on the device itself which is susceptible to local attack. Should the BIOS get corrupted or tampered with, Dell provides the ability for customers to analyze the corrupted BIOS image to understand the nature of the attack and take an appropriate response. This can all be done remotely, making it easy for organizations’ IT teams to keep their devices secure no matter where employees are located.

Dell SafeBIOS is part of the larger Dell Trusted Devices portfolio of solutions that work both below and above the OS to enable a secure foundation for customers’ workforce transformation strategies. For organizations using Dell laptops and VMware Carbon Black Cloud Audit and Remediation, their interface now automatically features the Dell SafeBIOS Off-Host Verification utility. You can learn more about the collaboration with VMware Carbon Black here.

¹Based on internal analysis, January 2020

About the Author: David Konetski

David Konetski serves as a Dell Fellow and Vice President in the Client Solutions Office of the CTO where his responsibilities include Security, Systems Management and Commercial SW technology strategy. David also leads Dell’s technology strategy defining the future of Work, unifying vision across the Dell Technologies family of companies and enabling customer solutions which transform their business. As a Dell Fellow, David provides innovation leadership across Dell Technologies and grows the Dell technical community. Mr. Konetski joined Dell in 1996 as a Sr. Engr manager, and over the next 5 years created Dell’s Audio/Video and Emerging Business engineering organizations. In 2001, Mr. Konetski joined the Dell Office of the CTO, and has developed technology strategies and product portfolios for a wide range of Client technologies, including Security, Systems Management, Communications, SW applications and Audio/Video ecosystems. David holds over 35 issued patents for Dell and is active in IP generation across the company. He was appointed to his current role as Vice President in 2011 and became a Dell Fellow in 2013. Prior to Dell, Mr. Konetski managed several engineering and marketing organizations.