Are You Prepared for A Cyber Attack?

Malcolm Brock

Managing Director Brovanture

 

Reading the news this week I was struck by an expert discussing the implications of the current Sergei Skripal poisoning incident in Salisbury in the UK. More correctly, the implications of the UK’s response to this incident with the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats. Professor Anthony Glees, director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies said:

“The Government must then prepare us for retaliation by Russia. In my view we will be hit by a cyber attack in the UK just as we’ve seen in France, Germany, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Estonia.”

It is likely this attack, if it comes, will not only target Government but also business and will look for the weakest places to hit. So, are you ready?

Many organisations have shunned the Cloud in the past for the reason they believe it makes them vulnerable to just this type of attack and to the loss of data or being held to ransom to get their systems and data back. In my experience, quite the reverse is true. Cloud vendors have to be at the top of their game when it comes to security. The loss of reputation if such a breach occurred would be devastating to their business. So, they have experts, processes and procedures that in most cases far outstrip those in the IT departments of many organisations for whom IT is a service and not the core of their business.

Our work with Oracle Cloud solutions gives us a close-up perspective on just what cloud vendors do to secure the SaaS cloud services they provide. These services are the beneficiaries of immense levels of expenditure and resources and comply to just about every certification going. If you want to know more then take a look here.

For our part, we are very conscious that we have a big role to play when it comes not only to our security but also to that of our customers’ data and systems. We have already taken the steps to achieve ISO9001 and ISO27001 accreditations and in addition we are well on the way to getting our Cyber Essentials Certification.

Cyber Essentials is a UK Government backed scheme administered by the National Cyber Security Centre that helps organisations, whatever their size, protect themselves against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks. For some organisations, you should note that if you would like to bid for UK central government contracts which involve handling sensitive and personal information or the provision of certain technical products and services, you will require Cyber Essentials Certification. More information is available here.

We are doing all we can do to protect ourselves and our customers. If you would like to know more about this and the security of the cloud solutions we sell and implement then please get in contact with me via LinkedIn or visit our website at www.brovanture.com.