Plymouth Science Park hosts international visit for top cyber security alliance
A top international team of IT security specialists has hosted a national event to examine how the startling recent online threats and the shortage of qualified and experienced cyber security professionals can be tackled by both business and government.
Plymouth based BluescreenIT, with offices in the brand new, prestigious One Research Way at Plymouth Science Park, has strong links with the University of Plymouth, Plymouth City Council and the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership.
The team is leading the way to defeat digital threats by establishing its own cyber ‘bug busting’ unit dedicated to destroying the ever-increasing prescience of computer malware used by cyber criminals.
BluescreenIT is one of the leading providers for assistance to companies to shore up their IT systems in the south west. Its decision to locate its offices to One Research Way at Plymouth Science Park is mainly due to the excellent high-tech facilities available at the site.
“Plymouth Science Park is the perfect place to base the security centre, because it's the ‘go to’ place for organisations working in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics sectors,” explains Richard Cashmore, Business Development Manager at BluescreenIT.
“One Research Way is the premier building within a premier site. Its exceptional facilities, combined with our team’s knowledge, experience and expertise is a powerful set of ingredients to use in the fight against online threats to business.”
“We have a risk & threat approach to advising clients on their security. We first understand what are your risks, so we examine what would really hurt your website or information systems and we study what the effect would be if specific data, such as sensitive customer information, was stolen.”
“This information helps us to build a risk profile before we investigate current relevant threats and so assist the client in aiding their decision to increase their cyber security.”
“We also mount penetration tests to see how effective their security controls are, as if we were a hacker.”
This year has seen a number of high profile, headline grabbing cyberattacks on the British infrastructure with so-called ‘Ransomware’ attacking the NHS network with ‘Wannacry’, which hit an estimated 300,000 computers worldwide.
Top IT firm BluescreenIT is tackling the problem directly and has gained national praise in working towards turning around the lives of young hackers with its HACKED Awareness campaign and programme – designed to help families and teachers spot if a particular youngster is a professional hacker.
The scheme runs under the banner of ‘Plymouth Security Skills Partnership’ and has successfully turned a number of hackers away from creating on-line mayhem and, instead, has moulded them into becoming responsible, highly trained security professionals.
The unique quality of the project has generated significant interest and the Digital Policy Alliance (DPA) visit saw high standing attendees at the event, including: Lord Lucas, parliamentary member of the DPA plus Philip Virgo, a Specialist Advisor to the DPA and the Department of Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee.
Current and past clients for BluescreenIT include: NATO, the US Army, the Ministry of Defence and various businesses from the transport industry and aerospace. Its close links to Plymouth University have also proved to be highly valuable.
University of Plymouth, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Professor Kevin Jones commented, “The University works closely with BluescreenIT in leading on the DPA skills agenda with the city’s STEM forum and have been involved in various cyber security events on campus. We’re pleased that the novel approach to cyber training being pioneered by BluescreenIT will be hosted at the science park as this can only further enhance the close relationship between the University and other parts of the cyber eco-system in Plymouth.”
