Hello and welcome to my “blog”
Since the beginning of April 17, I struck out on my own after I left the University of Gloucestershire (UoG) where following leaving Gloucestershire Constabulary at the end of August 16, I became the temporary manager of their Berkeley Green Cyber Security Centre. My company profile mentions that “MG Total Security Risk Associates Ltd, is an independent specialised security risk management and advisory consultancy with a wealth of experience and expertise, born out of over four decades of UK Crown Service to HM Forces (Army) and Gloucestershire Constabulary.
Its unique selling point is in the management and organisational development of security provision offered to individual business units or corporate entities, ensuring that effective security and resilience measures are put in place, which cover both the physical and digital(Cyber) realms that all business deal with in the modern world. This is achieved via a robust, educative, pragmatic and “real world” approach to ensuring that all possible steps are taken to plan, prepare, protect, prevent, respond, evaluate, and recover from any given scenario associated with total security risk management, which are appropriate, realistic and cost effective to the client’s requirements” Over the last couple of months, I’ve been out networking as far and wide as possible from “Digital Security” events in Birmingham, Cheltenham and London. Following an agreement with the UoG prior to leaving, I assisted them in help staff their stand at this year’s Gloucestershire Business Show from 17-18th of May at the Centaur Stand, which was co-located within the wider “Digital Security Zone”.
It was great to be back amongst close friends and colleagues, to speak about the Cyber Centre as well as engage with former partners within the Digital Security arena. During May, I attended an excellent two-day course held by IASME at the Malvern Hills Science Park to become a Cyber Essentials Assessor. This is progressing well in that my Company has now achieved Cyber Essentials and the IASME Certification of Assurance, whilst I now wait to be paired with a similar company and carry out their assessment before being signed off by IASME as a Certified Body for the assessing of the Cyber Essentials standard. For more information on IASME and Cyber Essentials please visit their online portal: https://www.iasme.co.uk/. I will update my profile when I have become an accredited Cyber Essentials Assessor.
Quite unexpectedly (but very gratefully received) I was contacted by John Unsworth who is the Chief Executive of the London Digital Security Centre (LDSC) to become their Community Engagement Officer, a part time role, which will take me to London on a weekly basis to run and deliver their Digital Advice Clinics(DAC) This is a great honour and a fantastic opportunity to be able to continue to be involved in the ever-evolving world of “Digital Security”, a world entered again quite by chance in December 2014, when I was asked by the then ACC of Gloucestershire Constabulary Richard Berry, to work alongside Ian Maxted who became the Policing priority “Safer Cyber” Co-ordinator. I have already started work with the LDSC in attending some of their outreach evenings “An audience with” and the “In the community” events and now have DAC events planned from the start of June in the London area. For more information concerning the LDSC, do please visit their online portal (https://londondsc.co.uk regardless as to if you’re a business in the Capital or elsewhere in the UK or the World, the advice is just as relevant, especially if you are an SME.
Hopefully you will have noticed that the theme of the work I now do, has morphed from Cyber Security to Digital Security as this is the way the wider industry is going and I’ll talk about more over the coming months. To sum up the past two months, is relatively simple, it has been very, very busy and I’m looking forward to the next few months as the above and other job opportunities come on line. But the core of my business is to offer to all businesses a robust, educative, pragmatic and “real world” approach to ensuring that all possible steps are taken to plan, prepare, protect, prevent, respond, evaluate, and recover from any given scenario associated with total security risk management, which are appropriate, realistic and cost effective to the client’s requirements. The matter of Digital Security, can no longer be a grudge acceptance of Businesses daily activity, it is now a crucial and intrinsic part of the daily Businesses operations process. The bare minimum to protect your business as recommended by the NCSC
• Install the latest software and app updates • Use strong and separate passwords for your key accounts
• Provide staff training with access to simple, freely-available cyber security training • Back-up essential data at regular intervals(several)
• Conduct a cyber security risk assessment for your business • Seek accreditation through the Government – endorsed “Cyber Essentials Scheme”
• Never disclose security details such as passwords or PIN’s
• Don’t assume an email, text or call is authentic
Regards, Mark Godsland MSyI
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