Dailymotion Keeps Hybrid Workforce Secure with Absolute Secure Endpoint.

Managing a fleet of several hundred machines is a challenging task, even more so when these devices are in multiple sites and countries. At Dailymotion, the IT team must provide an efficient working environment and support services to 350 employees around the world. “Most of our employees are in France, but we also have teams in the United States and Asia,” explains Frédéric Warest, IT Specialist at Dailymotion. “The entire management of the fleet is carried out from the head office in Paris, and this is a fairly time-consuming task.”

Since remote work has become a common practice, things can get tricky, especially when it comes to data protection. When it comes to endpoint management, the team had some tools to intervene remotely on the devices, but the new era of work-from-anywhere gave rise to two issues. The first issue is around the subject of deployment and maintenance operations. “Users had to be connected to the local network to receive tools and system updates. But remote workers do not always connect to the VPN because they don’t always need it to work. In this case, they were not receiving the necessary updates, especially security patches.” Secondly, remote working logically leads to devices leaving the company, which exposes them to the risk of loss or theft. “Even if the data is protected by an encryption mechanism, we wanted to provide maximum security by also protecting the computers themselves,” stresses Frédéric.

A Natively Integrated, Persistent Agent

Equipped with Dell computers, Dailymotion became interested in the Absolute Secure Endpoint solution, which is factory-embedded in the firmware of the manufacturer’s PCs. Thanks to a partnership with 28 systems manufacturers worldwide, Absolute’s Persistence® technology is present in over 600 million devices. “The Absolute Persistence technology is integrated into the device’s bios at the time of purchase. All that is required is to activate it via a Group Policy Object in the Active Directory. The policy can be created and applied to the workstations in less than an hour.” On top of the speed and simplicity of implementation, the Dailymotion team is attracted to the Persistence technology’s resilience to tampering attempts. “Even if the operating system is fully reinstalled, the hard drive is replaced, or the firmware is updated, the Absolute Persistence technology cannot be deleted and will automatically reactivate itself.”

Track and Recover Lost Devices

From a practical point of view, Absolute Secure Endpoint also met the company’s needs. The solution allows for deployments on devices, even if they are not connected to the internal network. Subsequently, Absolute Secure Endpoint will give administrators the ability to find, block, or format a lost or stolen computer. “First, we freeze the machine. When it is switched on, it cannot be used anymore, and the screen shows a message with the company’s details. We have already recovered a few computers in this way, when the computer has been forgotten somewhere,” says Frédéric. If this first step is unsuccessful, it is then possible to launch a remote formatting of the drive, to make sure that no data can be recovered.

Investing in the Resilience of Critical Applications

Cybersecurity is a strategic issue and a major concern for Dailymotion’s management. Dailymotion is now considering extending its use of Absolute Secure Endpoint to other features, including Absolute Application Resilience. “We could use Absolute to make specific applications resilient to external factor like common decay, unintentional deletion, or malicious actions. The auto-repair and auto-reinstall features would allow us to ensure that critical software is always properly installed and never corrupted or deleted,” explains Frédéric.