Cybersecurity & Your Data
How important is it to you that your partner business have good cybersecurity?
When you work with other businesses, inevitably there’s some sharing of information. When that other business has to understand your needs, more will be shared.
Information Transfer
I know my clients’ emails, office phone numbers, and much more. If I’ve been working with them for any length of time, I’m probably aware of ongoing and even upcoming confidential projects. I even have a rough idea of what you’re paying for any roles connected to the service I offer.
Obviously, all of that is information I’ve picked up in the process of doing my job. But this should give you a clear idea how much information about your business your suppliers will learn over time.
And that’s why you should want to work with suppliers who have rigorous cybersecurity processes in place.
A few key things to look for before partnering with a supplier:
Cyber Essentials
IT Works Recruitment is Cyber Essentials certified. Cyber Essentials is an effective government backed scheme that helps an organisation to best protect itself from cyber security threats. You can identify which organisations have been certified via the scheme by looking for the following logo on their website:
Knowing that you are working with a cyber certified partner gives you the confidence that you are entering into a supplier relationship with an organisation that:
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Prioritises and invests in their cyber security and actively works towards protecting itself from a cyber attack
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Takes their responsibility to protect the data you share with them, seriously
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Has established security measures and processes
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Meets the expectations of the government’s National Cyber Security Centre
That means our routers and firewalls are secured, our virus and malware protection is kept up to date (and so is our software – that way nobody can use old exploits to gain access), our passwords have to meet high standards, and our team undergo regular training to identify the latest potential scams and schemes.
Cyber Threats
In the governments cyber security breach survey 2022, they reported that in the last 12 months 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber-attack. Of this 39% the most common threat reported was phishing attempts (83%). Despite this research they found that organisations were more often quoting their major threats to security were malware or ransomware attack and that they were prepared with protocols for this.
We are an organisation that even from day one empower our teams with security awareness training. We are aware that the everyone in the team can receive one of the phishing attacks the government have highlighted as the most common threat. We not only provide all of our team with a cyber security education we also test them on their ability to identify and act on threats via simulated phishing attempts. Statistically, if a company isn’t trained to spot them, about 35% of the staff will fall for a phishing attack!)
Next time you send me an email or pick up the phone and call you can be confident that whatever information is shared is protected properly.
Your business partners can be a vulnerable spot within your security protocols - make sure to choose partners wisely.
