The UK’s leading cybersecurity agency has launched two new services designed to help the country’s SMEs better manage cyber risk.
The National Cyber Security Agency (NCSC) today released its Cyber Action Plan. This is a survey for small organizations and individuals/families that gives you a free personalized security her to do list depending on the answers you receive.
The second new service from the agency run by GCHQ is Check Your Cyber Security. Accessible from action plans, it can be used by non-technical employees to find and fix minor security issues within an organization.
A few simple online checks are performed to identify common vulnerabilities in exposed IT systems such as web browsers, IP addresses and websites, email inboxes, and more.
NCSC’s idea is to help under-resourced organizations get the security basics right to deter opportunistic cybercriminals.
For more information on NCSC’s free tools for businesses, see NCSC’s Free Email Security Check Spot Domain Issues.
The new service, launched as part of NCSC’s Cyber Aware campaign, is certainly needed. A government report last year found that almost two-fifths (38%) of UK SMEs had suffered a ‘cyber incident’ in the last 12 months.
However, it is important to raise awareness. The same report revealed that only 30% of businesses are aware of Cyber Aware campaigns and available resources.
SMEs, defined by the government as companies with 0-49 employees, represent over 99% of the country’s estimated 5.5 million companies. They also account for nearly half of all employees (48%) and about one-third (34%) of the turnover rate in the private sector.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the UK, but we know that cybercriminals continue to target them. We are now able to strengthen our online defenses,” explains NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron.
“I urge all small businesses to use these tools today to keep cybercriminals out and their operations back on track.”
