How South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue were able to understand risk, remediate security vulnerabilities and improve security posture with an IT Health Check from DigitalXRAID
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue
Case Study
The Requirement
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s mission is ‘Making South Yorkshire safer and stronger’ and its work to achieve this extends to far more than fighting fires. The service covers areas of Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster and Sheffield.
The service’s firefighters respond to a wide range of emergencies, including road traffic collisions, water rescues and many other types of ‘special service’ incidents. To deliver this work the organisation employs more than 600 people, most of whom are firefighters, the majority being available to attend emergency incidents 24 hours a day.
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue firefighters are supported by teams of support staff who are skilled in providing a wide range of specialist services. This includes community safety work and its responsibilities to enforce business fire safety laws. It also works with a network of volunteers to further extend the reach of its prevention work.
As part of the legal requirement set out by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) under the CHECK scheme and in order to maintain its code of connection accreditation to use Airwave, the mission-critical communication service used by all three emergency services: Fire, police and ambulance, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue was looking to perform a full IT Health Check security review of its key infrastructure systems and services in the control room at its mobilising 999 centre based in Sheffield.
“It’s been invaluable for South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to work with DigitalXRAID on multiple Cyber Essentials and IT Health Check assessments to find out where any vulnerabilities are and get advice and guidance on how to remediate them effectively.
The partnership with DigitalXRAID has helped to keep us on track in a world where security and updates have changed drastically. Working with the DigitalXRAID team means that we can ensure that in the event of a problem, attackers are not able to access as far as they might be able to and has also changed the way we administer our network to be much safer in many ways”
Steven Locking, ICT and Digital Services Manager, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue
The Solution
South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service was one of the first fire and rescue services (FRS) to achieve Cyber Essentials accreditation, working with DigitalXRAID as one of the approved certification suppliers and as part of standing orders to support local businesses.
For both the Cyber Essentials and IT Health Check projects, DigitalXRAID took time to understand South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s unique requirements, where its systems in the mobilising 999 centre, which uses dynamic mobilising to respond to incidents, are not just business critical, but critical for public safety.
Both internal and external testing was needed to be able to evaluate the FRS’s IT security posture and understand any potential gaps in its security. DigitalXRAID worked closely with South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue throughout the scoping process, offering advice on what should be included to exceed NCSC guidelines and to improve on results from previous years. DigitalXRAID’s NCSC/GCHQ approved CHECK Team Leader led the team of SC level clearance security testers performing the IT Health Check.
DigitalXRAID provided South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue with clear reporting, outlining any vulnerabilities that had been identified.
To learn more about how DigitalXRAID conducted the IT Health Check and how this has benefitted South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, you can read the the full case study.
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