Cyber & Data
Your business runs on data. Protecting it is part of protecting the business.
Customer information. Employee records. Emails. Financial information. Contracts. Systems. Intellectual property.
For most businesses, data sits behind almost everything they do.
A cyber incident doesn’t have to be dramatic to be expensive. Losing access to systems, recovering data, dealing with customers, investigating what happened and getting people working again all take time and money.
Good cyber security is about reducing that risk before something happens.
Helping People and Organisations Thrive
Start with the basics. Get them right.
Good security starts with understanding what you have, where the risks are and whether the protections around your business are doing what they should.
We can help with:
- Cyber security
- Data protection
- Backup & recovery
- Access & user controls
- Security policies
- Business continuity
- Staff awareness
Cyber is becoming a commercial issue.
Your own security is only part of the picture.
Businesses increasingly operate as part of wider supply chains, share information with customers and suppliers, connect to other organisations’ systems and handle data on their behalf.
That means your approach to cyber security and data management can matter to somebody else’s risk.
Tender documents, procurement exercises and supplier due diligence can ask increasingly detailed questions about security policies, access controls, incident management, backups, staff training, business continuity and the standards you hold.
For some organisations, demonstrating good information security is becoming part of being ready to compete for larger contracts.
Different businesses need different levels of assurance.
There isn’t one cyber standard that every organisation should pursue.
The appropriate level depends on your size, complexity, customers, data, contractual requirements and the markets you want to work in.
- Cyber Essentials
- A recognised foundation for protecting an organisation against common cyber threats. For many businesses, it provides a sensible starting point and a straightforward way to demonstrate that fundamental controls are in place.
- Cyber Essentials Plus
- The same core framework, with independent technical testing to verify that those controls are working in practice. For businesses facing greater customer, procurement or supply-chain scrutiny, that additional verification can provide a stronger level of assurance.
ISO/IEC 27001. Information security built into the organisation.
For larger, more complex or commercially ambitious organisations, information security may need to go considerably further than a set of technical controls.
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally recognised standard for Information Security Management Systems.
It provides a structured framework for identifying information-security risks, putting appropriate controls around them and continually managing and improving how information is protected across the organisation.
That reaches beyond the IT department.
For businesses operating in demanding supply chains, handling significant volumes of sensitive information, working with major corporate or public-sector customers, or entering markets where information-security assurance carries greater weight, ISO 27001 can become an important commercial credential.
It can demonstrate that information security isn’t simply something your business says it takes seriously.
- People
- Processes
- Technology
- Governance
- Risk
- Continual improvement
Working towards ISO 27001
Achieving ISO 27001 is not simply a matter of buying another piece of security software.
It requires an organisation to understand its information, assess its risks, establish appropriate policies and controls, allocate responsibilities, retain evidence and demonstrate that its Information Security Management System is operating effectively.
We can help businesses understand where they are now, identify the gaps and put the structure in place to move towards the level of assurance they need.
We've all seen what happens when technology stops.
Recent cyber incidents have affected some of the UK’s largest and most recognisable organisations.
A major bank dealing with disruption to services. An iconic retailer losing weeks of sales and productivity. A stalwart of British vehicle manufacturing forced to halt production, with the effects reaching businesses throughout its supply chain.
The consequences have run into hundreds of millions of pounds.
These are large organisations with resources, expertise and financial resilience that most businesses could never call upon.
For a smaller business, even a fraction of that disruption can be significant.