Olympics Fitness Assessment: cyber security and resilience for London firms

Click here for an information sheet on this service

Following successful pilot projects for established clients such as the FT, independent cyber security and resilience specialist Company85 is rolling out a five-day Olympics Fitness Assessment service to help London organisations address the threats to business continuity that the Games present.

With the threat of co-ordinated denial-of-service attacks receiving high media attention, and remote working on a massive scale expected because of travel disruption, the potential for things to go wrong is huge. Company85’s service is a structured and methodical approach that helps analyse where organisations’ IT might be exposed, thereby helping them take pre-emptive action to close any gaps and loopholes that might threaten normal business operations.

Because Company85 is completely independent and has no product sales agenda, its report provides written reassurance that any potential threats or disruptions to IT operations have been comprehensively assessed in advance. By addressing key issues like cyber security and resilience in the context of the Games, organisations’ IT will be left fit for purpose within a clear timescale, creating opportunities for longer-term business advantage and helping focus future technology investment.

Steve Watterson, CTO of Company85, said: “Frankly, we’ve been surprised how unprepared so many businesses still are. The organisers of the Games have been very proactive in providing information to help firms get ready, but we still foresee very real dangers and it’s vital that firms have all bases covered.

“For example, this will be the first Olympics in history where mass absenteeism has been positively encouraged, because it’s the first time that technology and culture have made remote working on such a scale possible. Plenty of work has been put in by telecommunications firms to prepare network infrastructures, but with so many ‘new’ remote connections it will be much easier for hackers to obtain unauthorised remote access unless new precautions are put in place.”

The London 2012 Organising Committee itself is among Company85’s clients, which also include Lloyds TSB, Lloyds of London, FT, JLT, JPMorgan, HSBC, Symantec, Vodafone, CSC, HP, Oracle, AstraZeneca, British Aerospace, National Grid, News International and RBS.

A datasheet on Company85’s Olympics Fitness Assessment is available here. To arrange a discussion with a consultant, call 0845 468 0085 or email olympics@company85.com