International Centre for Life (or more commonly known as Life) is a thriving science hub and part of the cultural fabric of the North East.
Life is a dynamic science hub in the heart of Newcastle upon Tyne where scientists, clinicians, technologists, and educationalists work side-by-side on one site. The pioneering research and patient treatments carried out there have earned international recognition and are helping people live better lives.
Life has transformed countless lives over the last 25 years and continues to inspire the exploration and enjoyment of science.
The Importance of Helping People Understand Cyber Risk
Traditionally, many organisations believed that cyber security risks were just for the IT department to manage, but in today’s modern working environment this is far from the truth. Cyber risks are a company-wide responsibility.
The Life IT team is keen to enhance collaboration with senior management to strengthen shared understanding of cyber security responsibilities across the organisation. Although there were already technical cyber controls in place, the cyber risk and threat landscape is ever evolving and there was a need for increased security as you can never be too careful when it comes to cyber security.
A major part in ensuring Life’s cyber health is as best as it can be is having the wider company take collective responsibility and do their part.
How NIST Can Help Create a Plan of Action
The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Cyber Security Framework v 2.0 is a framework that helps identify and manage cyber security risks. Our experienced consultants use the framework to assess the cyber posture of a business across six functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
TSG’s Cyber team worked with Life to carry out an assessment to highlight the key areas for review and opportunities for improvement. The NIST framework has given Life a comprehensive list of areas to enhance, allowing them to focus on specific areas that needed strengthening, as well highlighting what they do well. The detailed results will support the Life IT’s team when presenting to the board what key areas needs work and how everyone can do their part.
Our cyber expertise combined with a recognised framework, presents cyber risks to the senior management in easy-to-understand language, offering clear recommendations and actions to help prioritise and address these risks in the appropriate order.
A cyber threat could seriously impact the whole business and the results of the NIST assessment helps demonstrate the areas of concern to ensure the safety of the business. From the findings of the NIST assessment, Life can create an action plan to improve their cyber posture that supports the wider company’s understanding the significance of cyber security risk.
What are the outcomes of a NIST Assessment?
NIST is beneficial for businesses of all sizes, and the results for Life are:
Collective responsibility: The framework helps create a collective responsibility within the business, ensuring that everyone is moving forward as a unit rather than isolated departments managing cyber security.
Understanding of security posture: NIST gives a comprehensive understanding of the company's security posture and highlights areas that need improvement.
Highlighted areas to focus on: The assessment helps the business focus on specific areas that required strengthening.
Helps the senior management team to understand cyber security: Emphasises the importance of the wider company understanding their responsibilities in cyber security.
Clear direction: It provides a clear direction for improving the company's security posture.
Backed by data: The IT team now has solid data backing them and can use the NIST Framework to empower their efforts going forward.
Mark Peart, Head of Information Technology at International Centre for Life
