When Jokers Attack

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

As I have written about before in this blog, taking robust precautions to safeguard our systems and data is more essential than ever. That might be down to keeping staff clued up on their password hygiene, not giving user details away for the price of a Mars bar, or having robust penetration testing regimes and cybersecurity in place.

As an ICT director responsible for more than one local council, said to me before Christmas, its not about IF you will suffer a cyber attack, its really about WHEN that you need to reconcile yourself to. The extent of preparations prior, will determine how fast you will get back on your feet and how much it will all cost. A number of councils, the NHS and the UKs largest housing group have all fallen victim to attackers.

The latest victim last month was Capita.

The Guardian reported, “Capita admits customer data may have been breached during cyber-attack”, “Hack caused major outages for some clients including local councils and ‘potentially accessed public sector data ‘”. Full article here 

Capita runs a lot of outsourcing across the UK and public services, particularly local councils. There is no suggestion in the article, that hosted databases specifically for social housing customers were specifically part of the breach. However it illustrates the importance of where our data is stored and how secure it is. From the Guardian article, you can get the feeling that any ‘data in transit’ might have been more at risk than hosted solutions.

Putting it in perspective, the article states while only 4% of its IT systems were affected, Capita admitted that data was breached during the incident.

When procuring Cloud hosting, most contracts these days stipulate compliance to organisation and local authority guidelines. Commonly these include segregation of Cloud data and sometimes enhanced storage/access to blue-light service standards.

While I say ‘most’, I mean all of mine! In reality, I have come across quite a few hapless councils (& others) who have acquired Cloud solutions with the security profile of a big mature Swiss cheese. Some of these can be way worse in a security sense than traditional on-premise solutions, accessed behind relative safety of a Citrix farm.

Nobody can be complacent and if anything, Cloud hosting needs ever more imagination than ever to keep data safe. Good initial contract conditions are essential, regular checks (such as robust penetration testing, sample restores/extracts etc) and continued vigilance the way to go.

As Sergeant Phil Esterhaus's (Michael Conrad) morning roll call catchphrase in 'Hill Street Blues' used to go, “Let's be careful out there”.

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Acutance Consulting would be happy to help you review systems options, 

please just get in touch, for a friendly chat over your favourite biscuits ☕😋.

       Related Post: Don't be fooled in your procurements by smoke and mirrors or prototypes 

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre – When Jokers Attack.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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The Heist

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



I don't know if anyone noticed, but just the other week, it was announced that the NCC had quietly acquired the cyber security and popular pen(ertration) testing company RandomStorm.

The NCC newsroom release states:

"After a period of operating independently following its acquisition for £55 million in March 2015, Accumuli’s services have now been incorporated into the wider NCC Group offering.

Since the acquisition there has been significant investment in the business, with a new consolidated office and subsequent recruitment drive. More than £1 million was put towards a new state-of-the-art UK cyber Security Operations Centre in Leeds, which is home to around 70 full-time employees providing a range of monitoring, response and investigation services.

The Accumuli, RandomStorm and Signify brands have been retired and their services will all be delivered under the single NCC Group brand."

Read the full chapter & verse here

I have only recently become aware of the number of my contacts, who have had good experiences in the past with RandomStorm/Accumuli around the ever more crucial cyber security area.

Clearly complementary to a lot of the current NCC offering, a few sites have remarked to me that in this squeezed climate, particularly around social housing, they can expect to have to shop around for best value. It would be hoped that NCC retain the existing Accumuli customer base, keeping them happy and adding some additional value, that groups are able to provide.

Quite a heist. With Castleton Technology PLC now with a pretty rich portfolio of social housing applications and complementary hardware/cloud support offerings, possibly another one of the cyber security outfits might be next on their shopping list. NCC could learn much from Castleton to corner particular markets.

Just saying.....
 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://archive.org/details/@housingitguy

Related Post: Working from home, essential in the current work environment 

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.


Rival Sons - the Heist.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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