Government figures released last month suggest that 90 per cent of organisations have suffered a security breach in the past year.
Cyber security is the biggest risk facing public and private sector organisations over the next decade and should be a priority for investment, leading business technology provider Equiniti said today.
The company believes large organisations have the potential to save millions of pounds every year by successfully defending attacks from hackers and reducing fraud, if they can harness the leading-edge research and apply it to their business.
Equiniti made the statement as it announced an official partnership with the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) in Belfast – the UKs lead university centre for cyber security technology research.
Equiniti handles huge volumes of highly sensitive data, our clients trust us with over 1PB of data – the equivalent of almost 250,000 DVDs – and they need to know their data is secure and safe. We also deliver managed IT services to some of the most highly regulated organisations in the UK, such as Land and Property Services NI and Her Majestys Passport Office, and their exacting and evolving security demands must be met, Equinitis managing director, Owen Lamont, said.
Owen continued: CSIT is the UKs centre of excellence for research into cyber security and one of the top cyber security clusters in Europe, so it makes perfect sense for Equiniti to support the Centre and to benefit from its ground-breaking work.
Belfast has a strong reputation as a growing IT and cyber security hub and Equiniti is well positioned to feed into this expertise through our Northern Ireland operation.
Government figures released last month suggest that 90 per cent of organisations have suffered a security breach in the past year.
Equiniti is particularly interested in testing some of the innovative biometric technologies being developed at CSIT, which it believes could have a number of applications across its business services, increasing efficiency and reducing the chance of fraud.
Stephen Wray, Commercial Director at CSIT said: Having Equiniti as a member and collaborative partner helps to apply our cyber security expertise into an even wider range of applications in business. Cyber security is an important element in maintaining trust in business, so we look forward to developing solutions that can be used to limit fraud and protect extremely sensitive data from malicious cyber-attacks.
Sabrina Feng, Equinitis Group Chief Information Security Officer, added: Queens University and CSIT are at the forefront of cyber-defence research, their aim is to combat and defend against any likely security threats that may arise in the future. As a successful business Equiniti are able to give something back by bringing our real-world experience to CSIT. The opportunities are very exciting for both of us.
About Equiniti:
Equiniti is a specialist outsourcer delivering technology-enabled solutions to large enterprises. It processes £90bn in payments every year, handles 88 million documents and pays 20 per cent of pensioners in the UK. Equinitis services, which are delivered by over 3,500 employees across 29 locations, benefit 30 million people in the UK and 180 countries around the world. Its Belfast business technology solutions hub employs over 300 highly-skilled staff.
The CSIT partnership allows Equiniti to leverage top tier cyber security research, ensuring it continues to develop as an innovative technology company at the leading edge of cyber security. It will also get the opportunity to test new security ideas and access the expertise of some of the top academic minds in the cyber security field, while feeding practical business experience back to CSIT.
www.equiniti.com
About CSIT:
CSIT is an Innovation and Knowledge Centre based at Queen’s University, Belfast’s, Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology in the Northern Ireland Science Park. Through its novel ‘Open Innovation’ model, CSIT partners with market-leading organisations to shape and direct its research into projects with strong commercial and societal impact. www.csit.qub.ac.uk
Source: https://equiniti.com/
