The Cyber Assessment Framework - What is it and What Does it Mean for You?
The Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) is a collection of 14 guidelines produced by the United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre (UK NCSC) aimed to support organisations in developing their cyber security systems. This is used in conjunction with the UK implementation of the EU Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS-D) to further protect Critical National Infrastructure (CNI); however the framework is designed in such a way that it can be applied to a wider range of organisations.
What the UK Government is doing to protect our cities from future cyber threats
The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have chosen Awen Collective for their Smart Cities innovation acceleration programme.
The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of the GCHQ intelligence and security organisation, announced on 2nd February 2021 that they have chosen three British businesses, including Awen Collective, to work on some of the toughest security problems within the Smart Cities domain as part of a two and a half month virtual programme.
WatchKeeper and the Cyber Defence Service are the two other businesses in the cohort. The programme is the 7th cohort in a series of NCSC Cyber Accelerators and is the first to have been dedicated to Smart Cities Security. The programme is in collaboration with Wayra, the innovation division of telecoms company Telefónica, and has partnerships with the Digital Catapult, Microsoft and others.
Cyber-attacks to energy, water, transportation, or manufacturing organisations are causing economic damage to these sectors and could cause significant disruption to society if the attack were large enough. It is the mission of Awen Collective to increase resilience and reduce the impact of cyber-attacks on society's critical infrastructures. Awen Collective does this by creating software to improve cyber security policies and procedures, and to enhance visibility in operational technology environments before attackers have opportunities.
Smart cities are a frequently discussed and increasingly popular concept. There are many flavours of smart city, but essentially, they involve taking advantage of digital technology for services such as traffic, electricity, heating, waste collection and other community services. The concept is popular and budgets for the implementation of such technology are increasing.
Smart city technology will bring efficiencies, cost savings, and better service to its end-users. However, the employment of smart city technology when it is overlaid on top of the legacy equipment found in the traditional infrastructure sectors has led to an increase in cyber vulnerabilities. Therefore, there is an increase in attention to industrial cyber security initiatives, products, and services by both the public and private sectors.
This cohort of the NCSC Accelerator is not the only initiative or programme that Awen Collective is involved in related to Smart Cities cyber security. Awen Collective was also announced in September 2020 by the UK Government Department for International Trade (DIT), as one of 30 British tech companies to be chosen as the first participants in their Tech Export Academy, which is a 9 month programme aimed at showcasing the best smart cities technologies across the Asia Pacific region. The CEO of Awen Collective, Daniel Lewis, was also announced by techUK (the British technology trade association) in November 2020 as being on the steering board of the techUK Smart City group.
Our civil society continues to move toward a more efficient and sustainable future powered by data in schemes such as Smart Cities and Industry 4.0, we are doing our best to look out for the security, safety and privacy of everyone.
If this article is of interest to you or your business, and you would like to discuss more about what we are doing at Awen Collective, including our products Profile and Dot, then please contact us today for a chat.