Charities and Community Interest Companies (CiCs) across the North East and Yorkshire are increasingly approaching the NEBRC for support and understanding relating to cyber security.
One such CiC was keen to understand if they were doing everything possible to safeguard the ‘personally identifiable data’ of the vulnerable people they work with.
To meet this need, the NEBRC worked with the CiC’s management team to conduct an internal vulnerability assessment. whereby the NEBRC’s team of student ethical hackers used TeamViewer software to securely connect remotely to desktops, laptops, and tablets to check the configuration and security of each device.
This allowed the team to inform the CiC of any changes they needed to make in order to improve security. The scope of this assessment also included the CiCs cloud services.
During this assessment, the team found that the CiCs device builds were not standard, meaning devices had differing levels of encryption, and some used admin accounts.
The team collated their findings into a report with a clear red, amber, and green action plan allowing the CiC to address the riskiest areas first. This report was tailored with an executive summary for CiC management team and a technical section for their technology providers.
The CiC acted on the report’s findings, and as a result, now feel more confident that they are doing all they can to protect the data of the vulnerable people they work with. They also found that the report helped to demonstrate to insurers that they were taking cyber security as seriously as physical security, which has helped reduce their premiums.
If you would like to discuss your cyber security please contact a member of the NEBRC team at: [email protected] or sign up to our free core membership to keep up to date with the latest cyber security matters and keep your business safe online.
The NEBRC can keep costs incredibly low by subsidising security assessments. The work undertaken by the NEBRC’s ethical hacking students often provides invaluable hands-on experience, making them highly employable post-graduation.