aql promotes business online security by supporting CiSP
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey launched in May found that one in four large firms experience a cyber breach at least once a month, with only half of all firms taking any recommended actions to identify and address the issues which leave them vulnerable.
Less than a third of all firms had any formal written cyber security policies. Only 10% had an incident management plan in place. This demonstrates not only that companies are unprepared for cyber attacks, but also not taking the most basic precautions, either technically or through education and training.
The majority of the malware reported to the Cabinet Office National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK see Editor Note below) was of a known type and can be defended proactively.
Part of the national challenge is how to share this information securely between businesses. To achieve this, CERT-UK created a platform for reporting and sharing such sensitive information, known as the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP see Editor Note below). CiSP operates in all UK Regions to allow businesses to have access to vital information and provide local collaboration against this global challenge.
Last year, aql were chosen by CERT-UK to establish and grow the Yorkshire and Humber CiSP community. As part of aql’s commitment to work with businesses in our Region, we are helping all companies to improve their own cyber protection in our role as the nominated champion of the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional CiSP – a free national programme run by the Cabinet Office.
In order to provide dedicated resource to promote the CiSP, aql has commissioned Stuart Hyde QPM to improve membership and build activity across the region.
Leeds is the UK’s second financial centre in the UK and a global centre for eHealth – the region has the capability to exploit the benefits of big data within these disciplines, but we must ensure that whilst we pursue these goals, we protect the data and privacy of the end user. It’s important that the public can trust those companies who are processing data on their behalf and part of that journey is to make sure that good information governance and best practice is shared amongst stakeholders.
A valuable part of that effort is to support the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership – an initiative to help businesses small and large. I am pleased to welcome Stuart Hyde QPM to our team to help raise awareness within the Yorkshire and Humberside business community.
I’m honoured to be asked by aql, the most dynamic communications company in the region, to help drive the CiSP in Yorkshire and Humberside. CiSP is part of the national strategy to make the UK a safer place online, and is part of the capability allowing businesses to protect themselves from an ever-changing threat.
About CERT-UK
CERT-UK has four main responsibilities that flow from the UK’s Cyber Security Strategy:
- National cyber security incident management
- Support to critical national infrastructure companies to handle cyber security incidents
- Promoting cyber security situational awareness across industry, academia, and the public sector
- Providing the single international point of contact for co-ordination and collaboration between national CERTs
About CiSP
The Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP), part of CERT-UK, is a joint industry government initiative to share cyber threat and vulnerability information in order to increase overall situational awareness of the cyber threat and therefore reduce the impact on UK business.
CiSP allows members from across sectors and organisations to exchange cyber threat information in real time, on a secure and dynamic environment, whilst operating within a framework that protects the confidentiality of shared information.
CiSP members are also able to receive network monitoring reports. This free service allows users to receive tailored feeds of information from CERT-UK covering any malicious activity that we see on your network.
Users can sign up for this service when they join CiSP or register your interest and a member of the team will get back to you when you have the necessary information.
Links to relevant information
- About Cyber breaches
- About the launch of the Yorkshire Humberside CiSP
