Hanzo Receives Grant From The Sustainable Innovation Fund with Innovate UK
Hanzo, the company known for its pioneering technology in dynamic web content preservation from enterprise collaboration applications, complex websites, and social media, today announced being selected to receive a grant from the Sustainable Innovation Fund with Innovate UK to extend its flagship Hanzo Hold product to address workplace risk.
COVID-19 has accelerated existing trends to both ‘work from home’ and ‘work anywhere’. Hanzo’s project aims to reduce information security and HR risks created by inappropriate staff behaviour on collaboration platforms.
The adoption of collaboration tools such as Slack is fundamentally changing the way people interact with one another. However, even after employees return to traditional offices, the use of collaboration platforms will continue (as will the risk of abuse) including both IT and behavioural risks.
‘Working from anywhere’ usually means taking hardware, and the information on that hardware, outside of the controlled environment of an office. This increases the risk that data may leak from an organization. This can include intellectual property, such as patent applications or embargoed press releases, as well as personal information, including financial details and national insurance numbers of employees.
Moreover, without proper policies and monitoring, online communications between employees can change how they interact with each other, potentially creating space for communications that could be considered discriminatory, racist, or harassing in nature. These communications unchecked can contribute to a hostile work environment and create risk for the organisation.
Aidan Randle Conde, Lead Data Scientist at Hanzo, commented, “Collaboration platforms lack powerful built-in capabilities for advanced content analysis. Analysis of collaboration content over time can help identify atypical patterns of behaviour. These can then be quickly assessed to determine if subsequent actions are warranted to protect employees and organisations, and support safe work environments that might include workplace training, policy enforcement, or further investigation.”
Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation, is investing up to £191 million to fund single and collaborative research and development projects as part of the Sustainable Innovation Fund over the next two years. The aim of these competitions is to help all sectors of the UK rebuild after the effects of COVID-19.
The Sustainable Innovation Fund is funding 1,103 projects, 1189 UK businesses, and totalling over £130 million in support across the UK.
Hanzo recognises that we live in an interconnected world, with many organisations working in multiple nations and jurisdictions. As the world becomes more connected, economies become more intertwined globally, and large organisations increase their reach into new markets. Although the innovation funding is British, its impact reaches far beyond the borders of the UK.
Hanzo is in a uniquely strong position to meet the needs of businesses that use Slack and other enterprise platforms. Hanzo has always been a remote-first company, and we want to help other companies find the benefits of working remotely while mitigating against possible risks.
Learn more about Hanzo’s project.
