With Cyber Security being more apparent than ever in modern economy, its no wonder that the Governments Institute of Directors are getting heavily involved to tackle this issue.
“Through the strategy we’re investing £1.9 billion pounds to defend in the UK in cyber space, deter our adversaries and develop our knowledge and capability in cyber security.”
With the production and development of new technological products becoming more frequent year-on-year, it is imperative that the need to quickly release a new product onto the market does not take priority over ensuring that first and foremost, the product is secure.
“Over 95% of businesses have internet access. Over 60% of employees use computers at work. The internet is used daily by over 80% of adults. Four out of five people in the UK bought something online in the past year.”
Cyber Security makes up one seventh of the Governments digital strategy which intends to make Britain the perfect place for starting and growing a digital business. As part of this strategy, the National Cyber Security Centre has been created. Two processes that have been put into place since this push for improved Cyber Security, is the ‘Cyber Essentials Scheme’ and the ‘10 steps to Cyber Security guidance’. Here at IntaForensics, we are a certified body of the Cyber Essentials Scheme so we are extremely familiar with the scheme and why it is vital for firms to be accredited. The scheme is a simple, low cost method designed for SMEs to address known vulnerabilities such as passwords and admin access policies.
“The Government thinks this is so important we now require all our suppliers which handle sensitive data to hold a Cyber Essentials certificate”
Similarly, the ‘10 Steps to Cyber Security guidance’ is the process of firms taking an organisational approach to cyber security and managing cyber security with the same level of business risk as any other common business threat, as opposed to just delegating it to the IT department.
“One in three small firms and 65% of large businesses are known to have experienced a cyber breach or attack in the past year.”
In order to ensure more businesses are aware of how important safety measures such as the Cyber Essentials scheme is, the National Cyber Security Centre is putting a push on the Cyber Essentials scheme to encourage all UK businesses to adopt the scheme. This push has been influenced by the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation next year, it’s crucial all organisations understand what data they have and ensure it is protected appropriately. As part of this push, the requirement for contractors to take up the scheme is going to be increased by the Government. Meaning that businesses who are not accredited by the Cyber Essentials scheme could risk not being able to compete for a tender because this accreditation is absent.
“If you’re not concentrating on cyber, you are courting chaos and catering to criminals.”
(Minister for Digital and Culture, Matt Hancock)
IntaForensics offer a full portfolio of Cyber Security services, including the Cyber Essentials Scheme, to explore, click the button below: