NI public sector at increased risk from cybercrime

Alan McVey, Northern Ireland Development Manager, Ward Solutions explains the risks of cybercrime to public sector organisations.

Last year the accountancy firm Grant Thornton stated that the combined effects of cybercrime, including online fraud and cybercrime clean-up costs, were costing the Northern Ireland economy £100 million per year. This year has seen a spate of new cyber-attacks against organisations and individuals; a simple web search of ‘cybercrime Northern Ireland’ provides a range of alarming headlines such as ‘Cybercrime police in Northern Ireland dealing with new webcam blackmail cases every week, senior officer warns,’ and ‘Northern Ireland firms targeted in online extortion racket.’ Information security risk has never before been more topical than it is at the moment.

It isn’t just major corporations that are suffering from the increased number of cyber-attacks, as cybercriminals most often target those that they think are most vulnerable, including small businesses and public sector organisations. The healthcare sector, for example, is a favoured target, as the wealth of critical personal, health, and financial data processed by providers in this sector means that it is a target rich environment in terms of both identity and data theft for downstream social engineering and fraud attempts. The need for urgent access to critical patient data is more likely to yield payment for the release of encrypted data. As a result of these malicious attacks, organisations are becoming more focused on their information security needs, and IT security awareness is growing rapidly.

To provide services successfully in the current climate, organisations need to evolve to meet the new security requirements that are being demanded of them. The first step in this evolution is to work with a specialist information security provider that can appraise your current IT security model and implement changes where required. Having operated in Northern Ireland for some time, Ward Solutions is well-established in the market and aware of the security threats faced by public sector organisations. We have invested heavily in our facilities and services in order to tackle the rising tide of cybercrime.

Last year saw Ward Solutions invest almost £1 million in our state-of-the-art security operations centre from which we offer a range of services, including managed firewall and security information and event management (SIEM). As the largest information security provider on the island, Ward Solutions is perfectly positioned to provide Northern Irish organisations with a comprehensive information security solution, to offer complete peace of mind.

As information security threats continue to develop, key to this peace of mind is knowing that your suppliers are doing their part to minimise the risk of a data breach. This is why government departments are increasingly insistent that any organisations that they work with are CREST or ISO 27001 accredited. In this area Ward Solutions is uniquely qualified to be of service, offering CREST accreditation consultancy, Ward Solutions is a recognised Associate Consultant Partner of the British Standards Institution (BSI), the company that oversees the ISO 27001 certification process, offering comprehensive consultancy services to organisations hoping to receive the accreditation.

As well as securing the supply chain, organisations need to re-examine the IT security model that they have in place and move to a holistic information security lifecycle, in order to keep pace with modern threats and computing systems and to minimise threats. Ward Solutions’ innovative information security strategy for our customers is based on the lifecycle of identify, protect, detect, respond, recover. The application of this cycle will dramatically reduce the threat level faced by your organisation.

If your organisation is interested in finding out more about the range of information security services provided by Ward Solutions, visit www.wardinfosec.co.uk or call

Alan McVey on 0749 666 3221.