ABERDEEN-based IT, cyber security and internet service provider, Converged Communication Solutions is a finalist in this year’s CeeD Industry Awards to be held on Thursday 2nd March at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel. Now in their fifth year the Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of Scotland’s most outstanding examples of excellent practice from the manufacturing, engineering and technology sectors.
Converged has been shortlisted in the Cyber Resilience category, alongside Aggreko, Cloud Cover IT and Scottish Event Campus (SEC). This category recognises organisations that can demonstrate examples of improving cyber resilience, knowledge and practice, showcase innovation, and demonstrate skills improvement and development.
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“We’re really pleased to have been shortlisted, and to be one of four finalists with cyber at the heart of what we do – to reach this point is a culmination of substantial investment,” explains Converged’s Founder and Technical Director, Neil Christie. “Our own cyber journey began four years ago when we recognised that we had a duty of care to provide an all-encompassing and quickly evolving cyber security service to our clients. To do this, we first had to recruit and train the best specialists and develop bespoke training solutions, while leveraging our partnerships with best-in-class technology companies. Once we were satisfied with the resilience achieved within our own business, we could build that same resilience throughout our client network, offering a unique, ongoing cyber security service, available to even the smallest business. We know it works because we’ve personally tried and tested it.”
A recent Cybersecurity Census Report by Keeper Security revealed that UK IT firms are subject to more than one cyber-attack every week, and almost 1 in 5 experienced over 500 attacks in the past 12 months. “These figures are significantly higher than in other industries, so our own security has to be rigorous, and our clients enjoy the same levels of protection by default,” continues Neil. “As part of our application to the CeeD Awards we had to provide evidence of the impact of our approach and it was a summary of these statistics, alongside qualitative evidence, that secured our place in the final.”
“We’re proud of what we achieve in terms of improving resilience and the stats back this up,” added Robbie Ross, Converged’s Cyber Security Officer. “Examples include a 65% reduction in phishing email click rates, and over 85% of clients saying they were much more confident in their company’s ability to respond to cyber security threats, following awareness training. Furthermore, a typical client is able to reinstate business-critical systems in 30 minutes from the point of invoking disaster recovery.”
The IT company is no stranger to awards, having been a finalist in the Scottish Cyber Awards and CeeD Industry Awards last year. CeeD is a recognised national body supporting a range of industry sectors in Scotland, bound together by a common aspiration to improve operational efficiency, effectiveness and ultimately the bottom line through peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.
Converged Communication Solutions is an independent, Aberdeen-headquartered IT and cyber security provider. Established in 2005, the company offers an integrated range of Internet connectivity, IT support, telephony and cyber security services to companies and organisations across Scotland. It employs around 30 staff, which includes strong technical support and cyber security teams. Converged is a Certification Body for the Cyber Essentials Plus and Cyber Essentials standards, an assessor for the IASME Governance Standard and an official partner of CityFibre’s Aberdeen project. More information about Converged Communication Solutions is available at www.converged.co.uk or telephoning 01224 656380.
