IFB launches Threat Intelligence service in response to COVID cyber threats
A great deal has changed since the start of 2020, but all of it points to an even greater need to be fast, informed and accurate in your responsiveness to complex cyber threats. This applies no matter how large or small, visible or obscure the organisation concerned.
Given the speed in which organisations needed to move to a remote working model earlier this year, many did not have the time to plan and protect their businesses, employees, systems and data as they would have hoped or should have leaving themselves more exposed to cyber threats. Indeed, data from PSBE Cyber News Group has found that half of UK companies (48%) do not have adequate cyber-security provision to maintain a 100% remote-working model.
It is in response to this, that trusted service provider, IFB, has launched Threat Intelligence, a new cyber security service designed to help businesses stay secure through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Threat Intelligence by IFB is designed to help organisations of all sizes – though specifically beneficial to SME’s - to identify vulnerabilities across their digital business estate anywhere in the world and provide real intelligence and action plans to remediate these quickly. By scanning an organisation’s public facing environment, Threat Intelligence provides them with a view and insight into the view that a cybercriminal could be able to see. IFB teams can then take this data and analyse it using the Threat Intelligence platform by categorising the threat and ranking the potential risks. IFB is able to utilise its engineering expertise to make recommendations on how to remedy any risk identified and use this to create an interactive and secure online report with support dashboard.
As organisations further entrench their reliance on technology to innovate both products and business models, extend digital penetration to new applications, devices and business processes, and better support the flexible working of employees – the associated cyber risks have meant that even greater and threat intelligence is essential.
As a direct result of COVID-19, organisations have become more vulnerable, with it becoming evident that many organisation’s IT infrastructure are not prepared for long term and widespread remote working. With many organisations applying what is effectively a “band aid approach” to remote working to remain operational, it has left them open to more cyber risk as many organisations lack the time and resource to manage and detect anomalies. This has created an opportunity for such gaps in knowledge and capacity for opportunistic cyber criminals.
Commenting on the new platform, Graeme Gordon, CEO of IFB commented: “Our Threat Intelligence platform has been developed with a group of IFB customers who have all identified the need for a service that not only looks at vulnerabilities such as outdated firmware and operating systems, incomplete or incorrect device configuration and weak passwords, but also creates comprehensive reports which puts the data identified into context for their business. Our dashboarding technology and security expertise means we can securely translate this sensitive data, categorise the risk and threat to an organisation and most importantly fix this before it they can be exploited intentionally or deliberately by a cybercriminal.”.
Graeme added: “Given that working habits have changed considerably in recent months and will likely remain this way for the foreseeable future, now is the time to start protecting remote workers, organisations and boards to understand any cyber threats on the horizon. IFB’s Threat Intelligence helps organisations be alert and understand these risks, translate these to be meaningful at a C-level as well as a technical level and ultimately help our customers stay secure through recommendation and supporting action,”
