Data Security Top Tips How do businesses protect themselves online in 2014

UKFast Data Security Round Table.

According to research, tech companies, especially start-ups often seem to consider data security as an expensive add-on rather than something they work into their technology from the start.

Terence Greer- King believes many organisations are not aware of the attacks they have been subjected to.

He said: "Attacks are happening every day. Cisco has 2 million a day.

"The average age of an undetected attack is 9 months. Attacks are getting through, data is being stolen and most organisations aren't even aware of it.

"People should be well advised to go through security checks, and find out exactly what's taking place on their network now. There could be a number of attacks taking place and there most likely are."

Scott Nicholson agreed: "Don't be under the false sense of security that if you're performing vulnerability scanning you're checking your secure configurations. You need that human intervention to be able to escalate the vulnerabilities that you've already got on your network."

This week's UKFast Round Table attendees were:

Julian Stafford, Midshire Businses Systems

Scott Nicholson, IBM

Matt Gladwin, Genting Casinos

Andrew Powell, Price Waterhouse Coopers

Terry Greer-King, Cisco

Phil Smith, Encryption Box

And the round table was chaired by Jonathan Bowers of UKFast.

Are businesses aware enough of security risks?

Are businesses savvy enough?

UKFast Data Security Round Table.

Fears for whether or not businesses are savvy enough to identify the risks and consequences of security attacks proved to be of great concern to Scott Nicholson, Security Risk Analyst from data firm IBM.

"It's inevitable that organisations will experience a breach, but it's how they're able to contain or identify that breach.

"It's no longer a matter of installing a firewall or an IDS or IPS, it's how you can correlate all that data and try and detect the data tax and security architecture."

Julian Stafford from The Midshire Group, spoke of his concern over the amount of personal data tech appliances in the office can hold, and that the biggest threat is the threat from inside an organisation.

"The ignorance is staggering in terms of the potential threats. The vast majority of people don't know that the photocopier and printer in the office has a hard drive that stores every single document that's ever gone through it."

Phil Smith, of Encryption Box agreed: "It's simple stuff that people don't know."

This week's UKFast Round Table attendees were:

Julian Stafford, Midshire Business Systems

Scott Nicholson, IBM

Matt Gladwin, Genting Casinos

Andrew Powell, Price Waterhouse Coopers

Terry Greer-King, Cisco

Phil Smith, Encryption Box

And the round table was chaired by Jonathan Bowers of UKFast.

Is security top priority for businesses?

UKFast Data Security Round Table.

Six experts within the data security industry, gathered at a round table event held at hosting and colocation firm UKFast, to discuss the damage security attacks can have on a business.

The industry leaders expressed their concerns over the damaging consequences of security attacks, voicing their advice to other businesses, who are unknowingly at risk.

Terence Greer-King Director of Cyber Security for Cisco, declared his concern over the importance of vigilance on Data Security within a business, and expressed how important it is to consider the possible threats.

Andrew Powell testified that the risk of data security is happening more than we think.

He said: "The risk is real. It's 24/7, it's global."

This week's UKFast Round Table attendees were:

Julian Stafford, Midshire Businses Systems

Scott Nicholson, IBM

Matt Gladwin, Genting Casinos

Andrew Powell, Price Waterhouse Coopers

Terry Greer-King, Cisco

Phil Smith, Encryption Box

And the round table was chaired by Jonathan Bowers of UKFast.

In 2013 Fiona and Wesley Ratcliff built a sensory room for their autistic son Harvey as his Christmas gift. On Christmas Morning they awoke to discover arsonists had robbed the contents and burned down the dream playhouse.

Upon hearing the story, some enterprising local businessmen and their teams came together to help the family out. This is their story.

UKFast Christmas Party for Friends and Family 2013

Harvey's Den on BBC

Encryption Box Technical director, Phil Smith, explained why a programme like EncryptionBox will prove to be a life-saver for companies the world over.

"It is absolutely vital to encrypt your data; we're at the stage where data loss is pandemic. A lot of businesses are being attacked by hackers, some of which charge as much as £4000 to return files back to their owners. Likewise, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) are clamping down on British organisations that lose data," he said.

"People aren't taking on board how important it is to encrypt. Top end businesses think they're secure and won't be attacked -- but the MoJ losing all their prisoners' details prove this isn't true. And SMEs are burying their heads in the sand thinking they won't be a target.

"Everyone is a target. Hackers don't care whose data they steal, as long as they can sell it for thousands of pounds. There is nothing out there on the market that can protect data as well as EncryptionBox. Our level of encryption is so advanced, and is completely unique; there is nothing else as powerful."

EncryptionBox uses several dual hexacore servers to store and safely encrypt all its users' data. It also employs terabytes of storage, secure firewalls and encrypted backup services to ensure no single point of failure.

Phil said: "As well as our backups and firewalls, we need the speed and robustness that UKFast provide because if we get several clients hitting the system at once and uploading masses of files, we need to be able to handle that pressure, and we've never been let down yet.

"It's also vital to us to host with a company that boasts security accreditations and that was one of the main things that attracted us to UKFast. In fact, UKFast ticked all the boxes; it holds the right security accreditations, owns its own data centres and run entirely from the UK.

"When we visited the data centre, we were blown away by the quality of service UKFast offer."

Phil sees a bright future for EncryptionBox, and is confident that the work ethic, care and high quality of technology provided by UKFast means the service will always be supported and secure.

He said: "UKFast is an example of the way an organisation should be run. The staff have not been able to go far enough for us, and everybody has jumped on board in support of what we are doing.

"I am 100% confident UKFast will be by our side every step of the way on our journey. Maybe one day, we'll be building a data centre together."

Encryption Box on Security Accreditations and trusting UKFast with their Future.

The issue of data loss is a subject hitting the news every single day. Governments and international organisations in countries across the globe are being attacked regularly, and every time it seems hackers are become increasingly intelligent in their data capture. In the UK, the Ministry of Justice was recently fined £540,000 for accidentally leaking the details of hundreds of prisoners; councils are regularly punished to the tune of over £100,000 because they've lost computers or USB pens full of private information.

EncryptionBox is a highly secure file storage, sharing and messaging application which encrypts data using a series of highly complex algorithms and dual layer protection systems to keep user files away from prying eyes. Even if a device containing private files were to land in the wrong hands, the advanced encryption formula means gaining access to the data would be impossible. The data is stored on dedicated servers with UKFast.

Technical director, Phil Smith, explained why a programme like EncryptionBox will prove to be a life-saver for companies the world over.

"It is absolutely vital to encrypt your data; we're at the stage where data loss is pandemic. A lot of businesses are being attacked by hackers, some of which charge as much as £4000 to return files back to their owners. Likewise, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) are clamping down on British organisations that lose data," he said.

"People aren't taking on board how important it is to encrypt. Top end businesses think they're secure and won't be attacked -- but the MoJ losing all their prisoners' details prove this isn't true. And SMEs are burying their heads in the sand thinking they won't be a target.

"Everyone is a target. Hackers don't care whose data they steal, as long as they can sell it for thousands of pounds. There is nothing out there on the market that can protect data as well as EncryptionBox. Our level of encryption is so advanced, and is completely unique; there is nothing else as powerful."

EncryptionBox uses several dual hexacore servers to store and safely encrypt all its users' data. It also employs terabytes of storage, secure firewalls and encrypted backup services to ensure no single point of failure.

Phil said: "As well as our backups and firewalls, we need the speed and robustness that UKFast provide because if we get several clients hitting the system at once and uploading masses of files, we need to be able to handle that pressure, and we've never been let down yet.

"It's also vital to us to host with a company that boasts security accreditations and that was one of the main things that attracted us to UKFast. In fact, UKFast ticked all the boxes; it holds the right security accreditations, owns its own data centres and run entirely from the UK.

"When we visited the data centre, we were blown away by the quality of service UKFast offer."

Women & Equalities Minister and Employment Relations Minister Jo Swinson opens the UKFast Cr�che at the UKFast Campus 2013, looking at UKFast as a family-focused business that promotes women in work.

Jo Swinson is a UK Government minister who chose UKFast over thousands of other businesses as an example of a Best of British company that is doing things differently, pushing boundaries and changing the business world as we know it.

Halloween Skits and Hijinks in the UKFast Offices.