As a leading election services provider, UK Engage has to protect its company assets, IP and customer data. This is against common cyber threats.
Having held ISO 27001, the international standard for Information Security, for 5 years, information security processes are common practice at our North West based business. However, to further secure our systems, UK Engage has gone through the Cyber Essentials application in April 2017 and we are pleased to announce that we have passed.
What is Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials is a government-backed cyber security certification scheme that sets out a good baseline of cyber security suitable for all organisations spanning all sectors. The scheme addresses five key controls that, when implemented correctly, as a result, can prevent around 80% of cyber-attacks.
UK Engage has successfully shown that we have implemented the following five Cyber Essentials Controls to help us stay secure:
- Demonstrated a secure configuration of computers and network devices
- Use boundary firewalls and internet gateways to block attackers and external threats
- Manage strict access control and administrative privileges to staff
- Showed evidence of software patching and licencing
- Implementation of appropriate malware protection
Why Cyber Essentials
Working with all types of organisations to provide multi-channel nomination and voting solutions means handling confidential data and information. For UK Engage it is therefore crucial to eliminate risk wherever possible. Cyber attacks can cause expense and disruption, something the company will go to extreme lengths to avoid.
Managing Director, John Foster, says of the certification “The reason we applied for Cyber Essentials was to add an additional layer of security to our already robust security set-up. As a business, we are protected from the vast majority of common cyber attacks allows us to concentrate on our customers’ needs with confidence.”
Furthermore, UK Engage Services Director and Customer Service Excellence ambassador, Stephen Power, added “Achieving the Cyber Essentials certification will help to further enhance customer trust and confidence in our organisation and our service. As a team we work extremely hard to put the customer first; the customer experience and security has to be at the heart of everything we do.”
In conclusion, Included in the assessment was an external penetration test, which UK Engage passed. The assessment was completed by IT Governance. The full scope included firewalls, routers, end user devices and hosted systems at the company’s headquarters.
For more information please contact the UK Engage team on: –
Tel: 0345 293 5555
Email: enquiries@uk-engage.org