Cyber security

In the wake of recent cyber attacks on a well-known manufacturer in the industry, Eurocell was quick to reassure its customers and suppliers that it already has measures in place to guard against hackers.

These measures are accredited under the government-backed scheme, Cyber Essentials, to protect its customers, suppliers, and itself from cyber attacks.

Wayne Green, head of IT and SAP, said: “These recent events have shown how devastating an attack by hackers can be so, as a responsible business, we are doing all we can to protect the data of everyone that we deal with. The damage can range from implanting malware and ransomware on our systems and those of our customers and suppliers to bringing back office operations to a halt, so that we can’t order from suppliers and customers can’t order from us.”

In the worst case, he said, a cyber attack could stop a company receiving phone calls, emails or faxes, or generating barcodes for products, so its whole stock management, manufacturing and delivery system would fail.

Cyber Essentials, now a minimum requirement for bidding for some government contracts, aids companies in implementing basic levels of cyber security. It enables organisations to assess themselves against five basic security controls, while a qualified assessor verifies the information provided.

The five basic controls within Cyber Essentials were chosen because, when properly implemented, they will help to protect against unskilled internet-based attackers using commodity capabilities – which are freely available on the internet.