Care England and the Cyber Centre of Excellence Partner to Deliver Cyber Protection in Care

In today’s digital world, safeguarding organisations from cyber threats is more important than ever. That’s why Care England and the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) have partnered to offer a tailored solution to cyber security in the care sector, and is launching a white paper which marks the culmination of a year-long research project led by the UKs leading cyber security professionals with a joint aim to offer affordable protection and reassurance to all social care providers. 

In 2023, a provider of children’s care services, suffered an unauthorised cyber-attack which impacted its operations. In June 2024 ransomware hackers infiltrated the computer systems of a company used by two NHS Trusts, leading to major disruption with hundreds of patient appointments cancelled. A study carried out by Obrela Security Industries found two-thirds of UK healthcare organisations had cancelled patient appointments due to a cyber-attack, while 65 per cent said they were concerned that an attack on their systems could lead to a loss of life.  

The year-long research project found personal data from social care providers along with email addresses and passwords have been found on the dark web, likely from multiple sources including ransomware attacks and breaches in third-party systems.  Social care providers, particularly smaller organisations and some charities, have limited cybersecurity budgets and outdated technology, leading to weak data protection practices.  Outdated legacy IT systems and vulnerabilities within supply chains, or third-party systems across the care sector are often not updated regularly, and even large corporate organisations that believed they had adequate protection were proven to have vulnerabilities. 

Given these stark findings, Care England worked with CCoE to develop Care Protect, which offers a package of cyber security specifically for the care sector, and was designed with the ever-growing threat of cyber-attacks against care providers in mind to avoid the horrendous impact experienced earlier this year by the NHS. 

The package, which can be deployed to fit an organisation of any size, was also crafted to be able to be built around differing scales of available budget. This is to ensure that no organisation is left without some form of essential cyber security. 

Care Protect combines state of the art software in the form of AppGuard and dedicated online time with a specialist vCISO to ensure that all devices across an organisation are secure from external threats over and above solutions care providers are currently relying upon. 

For larger organisations, or those who have already achieved a level of cyber proficiency, there is an option to go further with an NSC Assured Cyber Board course and vulnerability scanning. 

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England commented: 

“In the last year we’ve seen a huge increase in cyber-attacks on health and social care organisations. Social care has so far avoided further major attacks, but we have seen the NHS badly hit – and we must therefore be proactive given the digital transformation our sector is experiencing.  

 

Whilst care providers are becoming more aware of the risk, there is still some way to go in raising awareness and implementing effective cyber security measures, and we are incredibly proud to have worked with CCOE to develop, trial, and test these solutions ourselves and with our membership.” 

Kurtis Toy, vCISO, and Chief Executive of the CCoE commented: 

“The importance of the release of the Care Protect package cannot be understated. While the Care Sector may not seem to be the most obvious target for cyber criminals, the stark reality is that more and more care providers are facing very real, very malicious, cyber security challenges. 

 

“Being able to partner with Care England to help provide cyber security to their membership and the wider sector is a crucial step in tackling the cyber security threats facing the world today.” 

Note to editors:

Care England is the largest and most diverse representative body and acts as the voice of care providers and works on behalf of small, medium, large, not-for-profit, and for-profit care providers, to deliver a single unified voice for both members and the whole care sector. 

The Cyber Centre of Excellence, is an initiative aimed to help organisations stay abreast of cyber threats and give them access to military-grade protection at high street prices.