Wanstor advises businesses to be Cyber Essentials Certified

It’s not quite a daily occurrence, but the frequency with which we hear news about the latest victim of a computer virus attack is worrying for any organisation.

Businesses face the very real risk of being unable to operate if they are infected by a modern cryptographic virus. These malicious software tools encrypt your data and prevent access other than by restoring from back-up. Infections have caused mayhem for everyone from the NHS, to banks. There is a dual financial risk of loss of trade, productivity, and in the case of data loss, the potential of fines from the information commissioner.

Very few people who have been impacted by these attacks are willing to put their hand up and acknowledge that they have been compromised. In our experience as a managed IT service provider, the incidence among businesses is about 1 in 10. The weaknesses that are exploited are often the same, a poorly configured firewall rule, a lack of suitable controls for remote access, unpatched and out of date operating systems. All of these can be greatly compounded by ineffective back-ups.

Cyber Essentials is a simple but effective, Government backed scheme that will help to protect your business, against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks.

As a managed IT service provider, Wanstor have obligations to its customers to ensure that they understand the risks they face within their IT systems, and the controls that are recommended in order to reduce and eliminate them. Cyber-attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, and carried out by relatively unskilled individuals.

They’re the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it’s unlocked. Our advice is designed to prevent these attacks. We recommend following the Cyber Essentials guidelines as a minimum standard for all of our clients. We feel an obligation as part of our duty of care to bring this to our customer’s attention.

Find here the Cyber Essentials self-assessment questionnaire. This forms part of the Cyber essentials examination process. We recommend that you answer the questions honestly and reflect on what this says about the security of your IT systems.

Wanstor provide advice and consultancy that will enable you to run a secure network and to attain the Cyber essentials certification. It is mandatory for any organisation wishing to undertake central civil government contracts, but is ideally suited to organisations from all sizes and sectors.

With the increase in home and remote working that has followed the Corona Virus outbreak the need to retain a focus on IT security is stronger than it has ever been. In our increasingly connected world there is both opportunity and threat. Wanstor help you to navigate the path to a secure, available and efficient IT service that maximizes the effectiveness of your business.