May21135 Cyber Security Experts of the Year - UK The invisible threat of cyberattacks may be far from the minds of many business owners, but Nova Blue Technologies (Nova Blue) is dedicated to ensuring that businesses has the correct tools in place should a cyberthreat rear its ugly head. Following the company’s win in the Technology Innovator Awards 2022, we got in touch with Founder, Steve Mason to explore why it’s so important to be fully protected in the digital world. Based in Cheltenham, Nova Blue Technologies is a world-class cybersecurity risk management reduction company. Established by those who have kept the nation safe from cyberthreats, the firm’s people are now committed to bringing this excellence to other organisations. “At Nova Blue Technologies, we believe that technology is an amazing enabler for human progress, but we also know that modern technology comes with cyber risk,” begins Founder and Director, Steve Mason. “Nova Blue Technologies was created with one purpose in mind: to democratise genuine cybersecurity and help companies overcome their technology challenges and achieve amazing results.” The firm excels in designing, building, and implementing its premium cybersecurity strategies and systems to ensure that organisations stay safe in today’s hyperconnected world marketplace. By doing this, Nova Blue ensures that every engagement is bespoke and designed to fit its intended organisation like a glove, with the cyber programme it puts in place striking the balance between risk and agility, and empowering clients to move with pace and security. The cybersecurity excellence provided protects customers not just now, but long into the future. “Our team are drawn from cyber and risk experts who used to work at the centre of government, both in Canada and the United Kingdom,” continues Steve. “We’ve got decades of experience in keeping both nations safe from the most advanced cyberthreats.” In fact, Steve regales us with a tale of one particular client from the Midlands, in the UK, and how he sought to successfully overcome the challenges he was met with. The client had had its financial systems hacked and were already missing thousands of pounds. The cause? Years of cybersecurity complacency and neglect, which in turn meant that the business had accrued decades of technical debt and were suffering as a result. The risk to the business was enormous. Oct2 669 “To get my clients back on the right track, I started by focusing on the crocodile nearest the canoe: the hacked financial system,” states Steve. “I investigated and found the source of the breach and shored up the cyber defences to ensure that no more money went missing or other damage was done.” Once this task was complete, Steve set about undertaking a complete and systematic analysis of the business and its subsidiaries, using his unique and powerful skills and tools to quantify and qualify their cyber risks. He then built them a full cyber and technology strategy along with a roadmap of activities that exponentially increased the security posture of the company (even stopping a repeated hacking attempt a couple of months later); removed the decades of technical debt in the organisation; and modernised the business, saving thousands on maintenance of outdated systems and procedures. “The result is a business that is not only more secure; they have a much more effective and efficient digital estate that will enable and empower their growth for years to come,” Steve enthuses. “The problem could have been avoided but, sadly, many companies have an “it won’t happen to me” mentality.” That’s not saying that modern technology is bad, in fact, quite the opposite is true. Modern technology is an incredible force for good for all humankind. It has cured diseases, democratised information, simplified communication across vast expanses, sent humans to the moon, and has enabled humankind to navigate their way through a global pandemic by staying mentally and emotionally connected whilst physically apart. “We believe that technology should be available to all global citizens to enrich lives and empower living. We believe that the barriers to entry to great technology need to be lowered so that more of the global community can tap into technology for the betterment of all humankind.” But while technology has enabled and will continue to enable the benevolent advancement of humankind, there are a small minority of tech citizens who would use these advances for ill-intentioned gains and cyber incidents are unfortunately becoming more commonplace. For example, the number of ransomware attacks globally grew a whopping 32% in the first six months of 2021; the average business disruption from a cyberattack is 21 days of downtime; and, perhaps most terrifyingly of all, the average ransomware payment was £210,000, with reputational damages being many times that. “While there is no such thing as an un-hackable system, it is possible to significantly reduce the risks associated with malicious cyber activities,” Steve elaborates. “We believe that government-grade technology cybersecurity shouldn’t be the domain of few; it should be the domain of many.” Nova Blue takes a full-spectrum and riskcentric approach to a business’s cyber security, empowering it to win and conduct business with the knowledge that the firm is behind the scenes, keeping it safe. The dedicated team at Nova Blue are experts at building an accurate, holistic, and actionable assessment of an organisation’s cybersecurity maturity. All of these assessments come with a prioritised set of recommendations, and Steve is not the type to drop a report and run; in fact, he will stay with his client for every step of the implementation journey if they so wish. Recently, for its diligence and commitment to protecting organisations from cyberthreats, Nova Blue was recognised in the Technology Innovator Awards 2022 and named Cyber Security Experts of the Year – UK. Nowas Steve and the team look ahead, they envision a bright future, one of safety and security. “Managing the risk is about being ready,” he says. “And being ready is all about having a gameplan ahead of time and executing that gameplan with finesse and fidelity when it happens.” Contact: Steve Mason Company: Nova Blue Technologies Web Address: www.nova-blue.co.uk
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==