BUSINESS MODEL INSIGHTS: MANAGE CYBER OPERATION Protecting critical research and education
The ever-evolving threat landscape means that beyond the initial assess and develop phases it is vital to continually improve levels of security, detect incidents and react to them. We were engaged by a university to design a comprehensive package, including a broad, ongoing Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution. From our previous experience in the higher education sector, we knew that securing universities from cyber threat can be more complex than in other sectors. Liberal expectations of information sharing from the student body need to be balanced with the requirement to protect extremely valuable intellectual property. A nuanced and segmented approach to risk is required. Additionally, any solution had to work for both on-premise and cloud architectures. The starting point was to understand the enterprise deployment in a way that was digestible by the customer’s security team. From this baseline, the priority was to implement a solution to identify malicious activity at the earliest point to accurately report incidents so that effective remediation could be conducted. The NCC Group technical team designed a multi-layered solution, including a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) suite incorporating Security Information and Event Management, endpoint detection and network detection with a unifying service wrap centred on a 24/7 security operations centre (SOC) facility. During the engagement, we were presented with a time-critical challenge to assure the security of its essential Covid-19 research programme, which was part of a World Health Organization global megatrial on treatments. Our specialist team worked round the clock to ensure the infrastructure was penetration tested, remediated and added to 24/7 monitoring within three days. One year on, the customer’s cyber risk was detailed and demonstrated and a risk mitigation solution was designed and is now managed through a 24/7 MDR solution. The benefit is the university is better informed and more secure and the solution enables it to continue in its critical research and develop the next generation of leaders through its educational programmes.
SURF partnership – protecting universities in the Netherlands
In January 2021 we announced a partnership with SURF – the IT cooperative for education and research across the Netherlands – to provide 24/7 security incident and event management (SIEM) and security operations centre (SOC) services over the next five years. Our specialist team in Delft provides the services in support of SURFsoc – the security operations service launched by SURF, which is dedicated to securing and continuously monitoring the systems of all its member institutions. SURFsoc is a forward-thinking example of how industry-wide bodies, individual institutions and security teams can work together to improve the resilience of entire sectors and we are proud to be providing our expert services in support of this mission. This combination of ongoing knowledge sharing and 24/7 threat intelligence gathering is a model that will not only increase the resilience of individual educational institutions, but will be at the forefront of educational security around the world in the years to come.
Inge Bryan Managing Director, Assurance Europe
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NCC Group plc — Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 May 2021
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