We’re Cyber Essentials Certified!
Cassandra CarseSterling Transcription recently completed the Cyber Essentials certification – a UK government backed scheme that helps protect against the most common internet-based threats. But what is cyber security and why is it necessary?
Ensuring Proper Protections Are In Place
In this day and age, most organisations rely heavily on the internet to store information, communicate with staff and clients and to allow access to internal networks. Unfortunately, this creates a risk for hackers and scammers to gain access to sensitive data.
“Without proper protection systems in place, any company is vulnerable…”
Without proper protection systems in place, any company is vulnerable. As a transcription company, our clients trust us with personal information and confidential documents, and this is not something we take lightly.
Cyber Essentials addresses fundamental vulnerabilities and makes sure that the correct tools are being used to safeguard against the most common attacks such as phishing, hacking and password guessing. These kinds of threats are very simple but therefore pose a high risk, because they can be carried out by just about anyone.
Five Technical Controls Assessed
In order to complete the Cyber Essentials certification, five technical controls were assessed:
- User Access Control – Admin should have different levels of access to other staff.
- Firewalls and Internet Gateways – Firewalls are hardware or software that create a barrier between the private network and the outside world.
- Malware Protection – Malware protection software defends against viruses that can steal private information.
- Patch management – It is important to always keep up to date with the latest updates and patches so as any bugs are fixed before they become vulnerabilities.
- Secure Configuration – The computers should be configured with specific settings, the standard settings aren’t always the best when it comes to cyber security.
Sterling Transcription demonstrated successful safeguarding using these controls.
Next Steps… ISO 27001
The internet is ever evolving, meaning what works today might not work tomorrow. For this reason, Sterling Transcription will be completing the ISO 27001 certification early next year, in 2020. ISO 27001 has a strong focus on maintenance, implementation and continual improvement of information systems.
So, while Cyber Essentials ensures the correct controls are set up and in place, ISO 27001 continually looks for ways to improve, and makes sure the existing controls stay relevant and are working as they should.
Cyber security is incredibly important to us and we hope that with the Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001 accreditation, our clients will continue placing their trust in us.
If you would like to find out more about how Sterling Transcription’s Cyber Essentials certification benefits clients, contact us today.