ID Cyber Solutions - Blog , Cyber Essentials

Launch of IASME Cyber Baseline

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 09:22:06 +0000

What is IASME Cyber Baseline?

Earlier this week, The IASME Consortium launched IASME Cyber Baseline, a new cyber security certification for organisations outside the UK.

Cyber Baseline incorporates the core aspects of Cyber Essentials with the structure of the Cyber Assurance scheme, acting as both a comprehensive examination of an organisation’s cyber security controls and a step towards the risk-based and policy-focused Cyber Assurance standard.

The new scheme requires an organisation to demonstrate their adherence to cyber security best practices, helping protect the organisation itself as well as its data and customers against internet-based attacks. These practices map to various international standards and frameworks (e.g., Cobit; CIS Controls v8) and have been structured along eight Cyber Assurance themes divided into four categories:

Identify and Classify
Protect
Detect and Deter
Respond and Recover

Ultimately, the content and structure of this certification allows for an organisation to ascertain and demonstrate its security posture in a valuable and meaningful way.

Cyber Baseline and Cyber Assurance

Cyber Baseline also acts as a pre-requisite to the Cyber Assurance scheme.

Previously, organisations pursuing Cyber Assurance have been required to hold Cyber Essentials certification, but, as a UK Government scheme, this certification has been unavailable to organisations outside the UK. The introduction of Cyber Baseline means that organisations outside the UK can now access the Cyber Assurance scheme.

Contact Us

If you represent an organisation outside the UK and would like to pursue Cyber Baseline certification, please contact us at info@idcybersolutions.com.

Is your organisation using unsupported software?

Fri, 19 Jul 2019 06:57:55 +0000

This year Windows have already announced multiple systems which have reached the end of their support cycle. In addition to these, between the months of October to December this year there are further systems to reach their end of life with the manufacturer. In preparation for this, it is important to understand the threatening concept of unsupported software in any organisation.

What is wrong with unsupported software?

Firstly, if a device is no longer supported that means the device will no longer receive updates from the manufacturer. A software update will contain fixes regarding newly identified vulnerabilities alongside new features the manufacturer has implemented. Once a vulnerability is identified it can quickly be exploited by malicious individuals to gain access to networks and computer systems.
Moreover, if the organisation is running an upgraded Operating System but attempts to run an end of life software the variations in versions will prove problematic for the user’s operations. This revolves around updates not being received by the unsupported software. Due to this the software is incompatible with the latest version, causing problems when the user attempts to carry out their work.
Furthermore, unsupported software creates compliance issues where multiple certificates and accounts require a certain standard of security to be upheld in relation to storing their sensitive information. With the rise of attention presented to GDPR it is essential the organisation meet the requirements set out as part of their agreement when holding sensitive information, without this the company can be open to a range of fines damaging the company’s reputation.
Finally, unsupported software leads to a decline in system performance meaning the structure is more likely to breakdown. This downtime could affect business operations and can lead to a loss in revenue within the company. This can be time consuming for the organisation to fix.

Cyber Essentials and Unsupported Software

As part of the Cyber Essentials requirements the machines on an organisations network should be fully updated, licenced and supported. Requiring general software updates are completed within 14 days of release, reducing the attack surface for attackers. With programs coming towards their end of life it is advised organisations begin re-evaluating their use of the software and begin removing or updating the software as soon as possible. The organisation should have a plan in process prior to the end of life of the system to ensure the changeover is smooth and can be managed around business needs.
A full review of products which reach end of life in 2019 can be viewed here.
Further to this, in 2020 more Windows applications will be reaching their end of life, view these here to allow your organisation time for review.
Download your questionnaire today to assess your organisations standards!

CRAZY CHRISTMAS CYBER

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 11:05:34 +0000

Christmas time can be full of festive cheer, however it can also be a very stressful time in business and your private life. Why not reduce that stress significantly?

The Cyber threat is ever present and Christmas time is an optimum time for Hackers to target businesses when they are trying to rush out orders and get clear for the festive season. Employees are far more likely to click a malicious link that could release RANSOMWARE that could cripple your business or release passwords to people posing as the IT Department during holiday times!! You can however, reduce your risk by up to 80% and prevent most of the recent threats such as WannaCry and BadRabbit. A Government questionnaire, CYBER ESSENTIALS leads you on a defensive journey towards cyber resilience. The journey is straightforward providing valuable advice for your business.

THE CYBER GIFTS

1. Learn about Passwords How to create a secure password and how to protect against password attacks

2. Learn about Firewalls Differentiate between a network-based and host-based firewall. Identify the most commonly attacked and vulnerable services and how to block these. 3. Learn about Secure Configuration Know the difference between the Normal, Guest and Administrator account. Be able to identify unnecessary software and prevent untrusted programs from executing automatically. 4. Learn about User Access Control Difference between the normal and admin user account in daily computer use. 5. Learn about Malware Protection What anti-malware software is, why I need it and why is scanning of files is important. Enabling real-time protection providing more immediate protection. 6. Learn about Patch Management The importance of licenced and supported software. Applying the software updates timeously and fix critical weaknesses on your system. This threat is REAL and it can happen to YOU. Don’t let Cyber Criminals infiltrate your systems and ruin your festive season - let ID Cyber Solutions protect you – go to - www.idcybersolutions.com

New Course Just Added (Cyber Essentials Primer)

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 15:48:27 +0000

We have just added a new course for the 30th of March 2016. Cyber Essentials Primer is a one day introduction course to help you understand the requirements you need in place to be certified with Cyber Essentials. Cyber Essentials is for all organisations, of all sizes, in all sectors, and is the UK Governments industry standard in cyber security. Cyber Essentials is an opportunity to have your organisation assessed by expert cyber security specialists who work with you to ensure that you are ready for today’s myriad of cyber threats. Being certified with Cyber Essentials demonstrates to your clients and industry partners that your organisation holds itself to a high standard of cyber security, and that you maintain a strict stance on cyber security in accordance with the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme. This course guides you through your Cyber Essentials application and ensures that you get all of the support you need to get certified. Hurry places will fill quickly.

Applying for Cyber Essentials PLUS

Fri, 15 Jan 2016 20:26:25 +0000

Do you require Cyber Essentials PLUS? The process is straight forward, but it requires a meeting with the client and to define a scope of certification. Once the scope has been defined, the certification body will conduct a Vulnerability Assessment on the systems defined in the scope of work. This scope may be up to, but will not exceed 16 IP addresses to minimise the costs for the certification. Once the assessment has been conducted by the consultant a complete report will be generated based on the scope and test criteria for the assessment. The report will be discussed with the client to address any issues detected. Any serious issues detected during the tests will require rectification and once rectified, a retest on the found issues can be performed. Once the issues have been successfully resolved, a Cyber Essentials PLUS certification will be awared to the company. This certification will remain for 1 year and must be re-evaluated each year. A typical assessment may take 3 days to complete. ID Cyber Solutions will endeavour to help the client as far as possible with guidance and assistance during this process. Call us on 0141 411 0101 to get more information or click contact us

Applying for Cyber Essentials

Sun, 10 Jan 2016 13:18:43 +0000

ID Cyber Solutions is now an approved Certification Body to assess to both Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus. To achieve Cyber Essentials (known as Level 1), you must first download a self assessment questionnaire from here: Once you have completed document apply for Cyber Essentials Online. Signup and pay for your account and then you have two choices. 1. Fill out the online form and submit your assessment or 2. Upload the downloaded self assessment questionnaire to submit your assessment. If your self assessment does not satisfy the requirements straight away - then don't worry - we will contact you with action points or areas that require clarification. There will be no further charge if the issues are able to be resolved within a 7 days. We endeavour to keep in close contact with companies / institutions until they have passed.

Cyber Essentials for MoD suppliers

Sun, 10 Jan 2016 12:12:04 +0000

Are you a supplier to the Ministry of Defence or its Supply Chain? HM Government commissioned a 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey. There are some rather worrying statements some of which can be attributable to the Cyber threat. 90% of large organisations and 74% of small businesses will have suffered a security breach. 69% of large and 38% of small businesses were attacked by an unauthorised outsider last year whilst the average costs of the worst possible breach ranges from £75k – £311k for a small business to £1.46m – £3.14m for a large business. From January 2016 the MoD will stipulate in all new contracts for MoD identifiable products and services that Cyber Essentials or Cyber Essentials PLUS i s a requirement upon commencement of the contract. If you are a supplier of goods and services in the MoD Supply Chain and are bidding for contracts between January and April 2016 the process is straight forward. You can click directly on the following link to start the process Additionally from April 2016 the MoD are introducing their Cyber Risk Profile Requirements which stipulate up to 42 additional security controls to be implemented and evidence to be submitted as part of all MoD contracts. The process for presenting the evidence will be through an (auditable) self-attested questionnaire, however support is available from ID Cyber Solutions where a centrally managed information security management system can be set up to minimise the impact on your behalf. The cyber risk profiles set out the cyber protection measures required at each level of cyber risk. Call us on 0141 411 0101 to get more information or click contact us