Safe4 and Jermyn Consulting to work together

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Safe4 Information Management and information security experts Jermyn Consulting have agreed to work together to bring the benefits of highly secure document storage and delivery services into the market sectors addressed by Jermyn.

Jermyn Consulting and Safe4 are natural partners, addressing many aspects of information security. Jermyn specialise in ISO 27001 consulting, and assisting with development and management of business continuity and disaster recovery plans. They have developed structured methodologies that assist their customers to achieve higher levels of resilience in their businesses.

George Hall, founder and managing director of Jermyn Consulting, believes that the combination of their knowledge and experience with the proven security and flexibility offered by Safe4 will add value to the work that is being carried out on behalf of their customers: “I am confident that working with Safe4 will enhance the excellent relationship we have developed with many of the organisations we provide services for, both by managing our communications securely and by providing a strong and effective platform for the creation and management of disaster recovery plans.”

Ben Martin of Safe4 sees great benefits for all parties in this relationship.  “We are excited at the opportunities offered by working with Jermyn Consulting.  Their long experience and proven expertise in the field of information security complements the fundamental purpose of Safe4 perfectly – to provide a cost-effective, highly secure and customer-friendly service to deliver and manage confidential information.  We look forward to working closely with them to develop offerings aligned with their specific market sectors.”

Careless use of email continues to lead to security breaches

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As in previous years, global accounting and consultancy services provider pwc has released its 2015 report on information security breaches, and the impact that they have on businesses of all sizes.  The costs of such breaches are huge, both in financial terms and from a reputational perspective.

Interestingly, a significant number of breaches are caused by employee behaviour rather than technology-related issues.  Companies that allowed their staff to access social networking services and peer-to-peer file sharing sites suffered higher levels of information leakage. Following on from the Bank of England’s experiences relating to “auto-complete” of email addresses, careless or uncontrolled use of email remains a damaging cause of security failings.  This was commented on last week by Safe4.

The approach adopted by Safe4 can help to eliminate such security breaches.  By placing confidential information into a secure vault, only approved and authorised users are permitted to gain access, and all actions are comprehensively recorded in audit trails. Email need never be used to carry confidential files as attachments.

For further information on how your organisation can benefit from using Safe4, please contact us.  We will be very pleased to assist.

Bank of England moves to stop email errors

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The Financial Times has recently reported on a new security measure being implemented by the Bank of England – disabling the auto-completion of email addresses to lessen the risk of emails being sent to the wrong addressees.  This follows an email about research into Britan’s exit from the EU being accidentally sent to a member of the media by the private secretary of Sir John Cunliffe, the Bank’s deputy governor for financial stability.  The email itself explicitly stated that it should not be sent to the media.

Auto-completion of email addresses is a useful tool, but time and time again it has been responsible for confidential information being sent to the wrong recipients.  Several UK law firms have reported this problem, but it keeps on happening.  Staff at the Bank of England have commented that switching this facility off might have an adverse impact on productivity. As far back as 2007 the then Financial Services Authority was recommending that auto-complete in email systems be disabled by members of the financial services community.

This problem can be eliminated by using Safe4 to store confidential information and share it with external parties.  The internal controls built into Safe4 will ensure that documents or messages will never be sent to the wrong people; only authorised parties will be able to receive communication about documents held within the system, and subsequently view such information.  Using the comprehensive audit trails and records maintained by Safe4, it is possible to make sure that only the right people have had access to confidential information.