Benefit from tailored practical cyber advice
Whether you are the Chief Exec of a local authority conducting some work on the go or at home, a councillor carrying out party business from your own device or even a sole trader, having access to a highly-trained cyber security specialist could help you make some practical and simple changes which could greatly improve your digital security.
Most of us know our passwords should be more complicated than firstname.lastname123 but then we struggle to remember them, making IT and internet security a headache. Or we’ve heard we should segregate our homeworking environment from our other home-based internet activity and devices, but we don’t know how. Armed with standard anti-virus protection and our fingers crossed, we go about our online business hoping to remain safe from attack.
We might also think it is unlikely we will be of interest to cyber attackers. But the bad news is anyone can get caught up in a cyber-attack. Even if you aren’t the intended victim, supply chain attacks could target an organisation you correspond with and, without a strong security posture and good level of knowledge, you could be hit. In turn, this could impact customers or local residents you hold details on, potentially putting their personal information at risk too.
Assuming the worst won’t happen is no longer a safe strategy. One study by Vodaphone Business found 54 per cent of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) – those with fewer than 500 employees, including sole traders – have experienced some form of cyber-attack. Additionally, some cyber threats may go undetected, such as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), a form of presence in a network which can steal sensitive data over a prolonged period.
Addressing cyber security doesn’t have to be time-consuming, expensive, or confusing, whether you are a Chief Exec, a councillor or sole trader conducting business on-the-go or from home and/or an office environment. The Total Protect Packages being offered by the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) – an organisation which aims to make the UK the saftest place to live, work and play in the digital world – are already available for councillors and sole traders, with additional packages soon to be launched for small businesses and parish and town councils.
These packages offer a complete range of protection, including the sophisticated protection software AppGuard and access to online training awareness courses. Also included is a conversation with one of the CCoE’s highly-trained cyber security specialists who will carry out a practical health check on your cyber environment to identify risks and explain practical and simple ways to improve your security posture.
These highly-trained professionals are known as virtual Chief Information Security Officers (vCISO), and their advice and second opinion can also be valuable for larger organisations with access to their own expertise – another service offered by the CCoE.
Kurtis Toy, a vCISO and Convener of the CCoE, explained: “The CCoE can provide access to myself or one of my team to give practical and simple-to- follow advice which can make a big difference. There is so much information out there telling individuals who work from home or outside of an office to improve their cyber security, but the detail is lacking on how to do it. This is about providing simple and practical advice and taking people over the line from having an idea of what they should do to implementing it. For example, 99 per cent of the people I speak to haven’t changed their password on their router because they don’t know how. We can recommend technologies but there are many other simple things you can do to improve your cyber security too.”
To find out more about the CCoE’s Total Protect Packages, which include a meeting with a cyber expert, click on the button below.
