Highland Council sends out Cyber Scotland Week message calling on north firms to safeguard their business against online crime
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Highland Council is using Cyber Scotland Week, which begins today and runs until Sunday, to remind businesses about the importance of business continuity in the face of new and emerging threats from cyber criminals.
Business continuity planning can give businesses the best chance of coping should the worst happen.
IT system failures caused by a cyber-related incident could make it very difficult or even impossible to carry out the normal day-to-day activities of any business.
There is a potential to lose vital customers or even go out of business altogether without business continuity planning, so it is crucial for businesses to identify risks, make preparations for an emergency and regularly test how they would cope in an emergency, the authority warns.
Part of this planning process may involve identifying potential crises that may affect business, working out how to minimise the risk of these crises occurring in the first place, and creating a business continuity plan showing how tp react. It is also important to test these plans on a regular basis.
The authority recommends that businesses have a back-up IT/information system in place, ensuring they have copies of key data in the event of a system failure or cyber-attack.
Installing anti-virus software, backing up data and ensuring the right maintenance agreements are in place can all help protect your IT systems. Businesses might also consider paying an IT company to regularly back up their data offsite on a secure server.
Printing out copies of the customer database can be a good way of ensuring firms can still contact customers if their IT system fails.
These risk assessment and mitigation measures should enable businesses to cope with a security breach or incident and return to normality quickly. This is particularly important for smaller businesses that may not have the resources to withstand even a few days without trading.
The business continuity pages on the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure outline a number of issues to consider and steps that can be taken to enable a business or organisation to return to ‘business as usual’ in the quickest possible time after an incident.
Every business relies on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of its data. The essential services provided by businesses rely on the integrity of cyberspace and the infrastructure, systems and data that underpin them. However cyber-related threats are one of the most significant risks to businesses in the UK, which is why cyber security is increasingly important to ensure the best protection.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is the UK’s technical authority for cyber security, bringing together capabilities developed by CPNI, CESG, CERT-UK and the Centre for Cyber Assessment. The NCSC helps to make the UK the safest place to live and work online - from individual citizens to the largest and most critical organisations.
The latest cyber security advice and guidance, including threat advice, is available on the NCSC website. The guidance available to businesses on the NCSC website and focuses on incident management and how to effectively detect, respond to and resolve cyber incidents.
The NCSC glossary for individuals, families and small businesses can be downloaded from the NCSC website.
NCSC also provides a free Exercise In A Box which is available online for businesses to help them discover out how resilient they are to cyber-attacks and practice their response in a safe environment.
The Scottish Business Resilience Centre also has a free Exercise in a Box.
NCSC also has advice on enhanced cyber security and how to bolster defences in light of international events.
During Cyber Scotland Week a host of events will be taking place to help businesses and individuals understand the threats from cybercrime, with more details available at the Cyber Scotand Week website.
Ready Scotland also has a Business Emergency Resilience Group 10 Minute Plan to help prepare your business.
Highland Council also has information to support businesses on its Support for Business pages.
