Bexley's Approach to Cyber Security

Bexley Council shares techniques in fighting off cyber attacks.

08:18 26 March 2020

Bexley local council is just one of many UK local authorities dealing with cyber attacks on a daily basis. The council admits to facing challenges around budget restrictions, availability of in-house skills and time needed to set up a new, more reliable system. 

 

 

 

Neil Gooding, information security manager at the London Borough of Bexley, said: "We had relied on a SIEM tool (Security Incident and Event Management) to manage security. It was particularly weak around log and event management, while difficulties with initial configuration and day-to-day use meant that it wasn’t producing the data that Bexley needed, nor was it being updated.”

 

 

 

He added: “Bexley therefore opted for a managed security service, from Hytec, which sits behind the scenes to guard the Borough against attack. It addresses the very particular set of issues faced by local authorities; significantly enhancing the protection of systems and data, helping achieve compliance requirements and ensuring appropriate security mechanisms are in place.

 

 

 

Our managed security service has five core areas including: activity detection; threat intelligence; protective monitoring; asset ID and management; and vulnerability scanning. Taking a partnership approach to cyber security has significantly raised levels of cyber security, which has proved invaluable.”