With cyber attacks front of mind for local councils, improving your security posture is key

With cyber attacks front of mind for local councils and digital services increasing, managing your security infrastructure effectively and keeping safe from cyber-attacks has never been more vital. We help local councils stay safe with our end-to-end network security. With today’s digital transformation and remote working accelerating and more services online, cyber-attacks have increased ten-fold and IT teams are not only tasked with keeping the network secure but also with protecting end-user devices and ensuring the physical and online safety of the workforce. All these serious responsibilities, paired with limited resources, create a challenge for local council IT teams.

So how do you protect endpoints, networks, and staff?

At Redway Networks, we partner with Cisco Meraki to provide our local government customers with next-generation security managed through a single, web-based dashboard. This means you can simplify device, network, and security camera management through remote configurations, video monitoring, and application deployments. Your network will be safe from vulnerabilities, data will be protected, and your building will be monitored.

Network Security

Local councils were hit by 2.3 million cyber attacks in 2022 and are becoming regular targets for cyber-attacks with many lacking a cyber-security policy or the right training. Cyber criminals often gain access to private or sensitive data and threaten to share this information. The first line of defence comes by creating user-based policies that restrict who can access various parts of the network. With integrated intrusion protection and malware scanning, users can easily stop malicious threats and files before they enter the network while prioritising trusted applications with Layer 7 firewall and traffic shaping rules. With increased network visibility, you can track and shut down rogue access points, set up email alerts when rogues are detected, and contain rogue SSIDs, access point spoofs and packet floods. Most importantly, with Cisco Meraki’s cloud-managed MX security solution, you can ensure the latest firmware updates are pushed to the network automatically to guard against the latest security threats and vulnerabilities. Read our case study on client Horsham District Council to see how they moved to a next-gen network security solution that blocked over 150 attacks in its first 2 weeks alone.

Endpoint Security

As digital resources continue to grow and staff use more devices, endpoint security has become increasingly important. With an endpoint management solution, you can protect staff from accessing blacklisted sites, and downloading unknown applications by using content filtering and advanced malware protection. If a device is lost or stolen, especially one holding sensitive information, you can easily identify its location and retrieve it or wipe its contents remotely. Most importantly, by protecting all your council’s devices, the network can remain secure from common endpoint security vulnerabilities.

Physical Security

Like most business, council’s need to provide a safe workplace for all its staff and visitors without fear of trespassers or unforeseen incidents. With smarter security cameras, you can quickly identify when a person is where they shouldn’t be and view video analytics of activity to identify high-risk areas. You can also help deter incidents with the ability to quickly search recorded video and easily share with the police. With granular access controls and visibility from any Internet browser, management can view groupings of cameras, or a single camera, and act accordingly. Plus, with video data encrypted at rest and during transport, you get even more protection against cyber threats.

Future Proof your network and meet future demands

In addition to our powerful security solutions, we can help your local council replace all of its outdated legacy equipment with the last technology so you can empower your staff and improve customer service, through safe access to digital information. We supply Meraki’s cloud-based software as its powerful, yet easy to manage through one pane of glass. Our next-generation wireless solutions separate staff and public traffic so they all benefit from robust wireless connectivity. Our scalable network switches deliver visibility and control over your entire edge network and our IoT sensors monitor your IT infrastructure so you can make more intelligent decisions to reduce equipment replacement.

To find out how we can help your local council with all its infrastructure needs, contact us today.