The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has launched a new initiative to help improve the cyber security of small organisations. The initiative helps publicise the need for improved cyber security across all business sectors, with special focus on small companies that may not have the budget for external or outsourced IT support services.
Cyber action plan
The NCSCS’s free Cyber Action Plan contains a few simple questions that helps small organisations build an action plan, helping them make small changes that will improve their protection against a cyber attack. This includes ensuring strong password health, implementing multi-factor authentication, implementing and managing backups, auto-locking devices and making use of free tools such as software firewalls that are available by default on modern laptops and desktops.
Check your cyber security
The NCSC’s action plan links to another NCSC tool, “Check your cyber security”. This tool helps organisations complete some basic checks of their company website, as well as performing checks to ensure their web browser is updated. It can also check the organisation’s IP address for any known vulnerabilities.
How important is cyber security?
According to the UK Government’s most recent Cyber Breaches Survey, 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber attack in the last 12 months. While the majority of these were phishing attempts, a number of targeted attacks such as ransomware or denial of service attacks were also identified.
What is the role of the NCSC?
The NCSC is an organisation of the UK government as is part of GCHQ. Their role is to understand cyber security and provide practical guidance to SMEs, large organisations and the public sector, as well as to individuals and families.
How we can help
We provide cyber security services to SMEs and education establishments with guidance and tools that go beyond the NCSC’s recommendations to ensure you have a robust cyber security provision in place. This includes the implementation of disaster recovery and contingency planning, backup services, management of IT security and employee awareness training. For more information, contact our team today.