HM Income and Customs (HMRC) has spent over £90m on distant working applied sciences within the final three monetary years, based on official figures.
The information, obtained utilizing Freedom of Info (FOI) laws by the Parliament Road suppose tank, revealed that the taxman spent a complete of £90,566,908 buying 187,427 units, which embody laptops, mobiles, pill computer systems and desktops.
The information revealed that throughout the three-year interval HMRC bought 67,362 laptops outright and 22,400 underneath a lease-buy scheme. Total, the overall price of laptops got here to £64,919,643.
In the meantime HMRC spent an extra £11,224,100 on pill computer systems. 54,000 tablets had been purchased underneath a lease-buy association, with 4,180 bought outright.
Cellphones had been additionally in demand at HMRC with 38,813 acquired for the price of £14,011,745. Moreover, 672 desktop computer systems had been obtained for the price of £411,420.
Responding to the findings, safety skilled Suid Adeyanju, CEO, RiverSafe, mentioned, “As one of many largest employers within the UK, it’s encouraging to see HMRC equipping employees members with crucial distant working applied sciences. Nevertheless, as an organisation tasked with managing the non-public particulars of thousands and thousands of people and companies, it’s important that every one employees are skilled within the newest cyber consciousness programmes and have the fitting know-how in place to guard knowledge within the occasion of loss or theft of a tool.
Adeyanju continued, “Distant working will proceed to play a vital position in driving financial progress, however with it comes elevated danger of an information breach or ransomware assault, so upskilling and reskilling current workers must be a prime precedence for all authorities departments.”
Safety specialist Andy Ward, VP, Absolute Software program mentioned, “Distant working performs a vital position in permitting workers to function effectively, however the actuality is that each new gadget buy is a possible entry level for cyber criminals. Organisations tasked with managing massive volumes of extremely confidential knowledge ought to have the methods in place to trace, block and wipe all info within the occasion of loss or theft.
“Moreover, being able to securely entry company knowledge throughout all cellular units no matter community you’re on is essential to remaining productive while making certain the very best requirements of safety proceed to be met. Taking a zero belief method to creating positive the fitting info is being accessed, by the fitting folks, on the proper time throughout all units no matter community they’re utilizing will assist maintain hackers and insider threats at bay.”
Tech skilled Sridhar Iyengar, Managing Director of Europe, Zoho mentioned: “Ahead pondering organisations will proceed to spend money on distant working applied sciences like laptops and tablets, however that is the preliminary step in empowering workers with the units they should thrive within the office. This should be coupled with a long-term technique to grant employees entry to the newest software program, enabling seamless collaboration on initiatives and facilitating their skilled growth.
“Solely by having a holistic method to distant work and worker empowerment will organisations absolutely leverage the benefits provided by digital applied sciences and unlock their true potential.”