The Department for Transport (DfT), the UK government department responsible for the English transport network, has invested almost £10 million in devices to help propel hybrid working.
The research, retrieved via the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and analysed by the Parliament Street think tank, observed the number of laptops, tablets and phones purchased by the DfT over the past three years, from July to June, as well as the average cost per device.
It was revealed that the Department for Transport spent a total of £8,880,249 on hybrid working devices since July 2019, with all expenditure on laptops and smartphones, purchasing zero tablets.
Overall, laptops accounted for £2,957,860 of the investment, whilst smartphones made up the remaining two thirds with £5,922,389 spent.
Also Read: Why Digital Experience Monitoring is Important for Cybersecurity
Between July 2021 and June 2022, the Department for Transport splashed a staggering £4,441,797 on smartphones as part of a “smartphone refresh” for the department.
The news comes amidst a number of rail strikes throughout the summer, disrupting England’s transport network.
Cybersecurity expert Achi Lewis, Area Vice President EMEA of Absolute Software, commented: “With the transport sector being such a mobile industry, it is important that staff have a means of staying connected and online in a work from anywhere world, and the DfT should be commended for their investment in this area.”
“But the increase in devices results in an increased attack surface, and consequently a need to bolster cybersecurity measures. This encompasses endpoint security and secure access capabilities, as well as network visibility and management, helping IT teams to prevent and minimise threats.”
“Combining endpoint security with network access is a crucial part of delivering resilient zero trust, allowing staff to remain operational for longer periods of time, whilst also giving IT Teams the ability to monitor threats on a case-by-case basis and freeze, or even shut off, a device or application when a threat occurs.”
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