Blaze Networks and
Cyber Essentials Plus
Blaze Networks and Cyber Essentials Plus
In addition to providing a comprehensive range of cybersecurity services, Blaze Networks’ own systems and networks are managed to the highest levels of security, which includes achieving Cyber Essentials Plus certification.
Cyber Essentials provides a structure through which a business can understand and assess the range of cyber-threats which it should defend against, and provides guidance on how its IT systems and networks should be managed to enable a good level of protection against cyber attacks.
When this protection is in place, an organisation can self-certify that all the essential elements are in place (“Cyber Essentials certification”), or can have an approved external auditor perform a hands-on technical verification (usually on-site) that the organisation has its protections in place (“Cyber Essentials Plus” certification).
Scope of Cyber Essentials
Assessment and certification should cover the whole of the IT infrastructure used to carry out an organisation’s business, or if necessary, a well-defined and separately managed sub-set. Either way, an organisation must clearly define the scope boundary, namely: the business unit managing it, the network boundary and physical location. This scope must be agreed with the certification body before assessment begins.
The requirements to meet Cyber Essentials certification applies to all devices and software in scope and which meet any of these conditions:
- Can accept incoming network connections from untrusted internet-connected hosts
- Can establish user-initiated outbound connections to devices via the internet
- Control the flow of data between any of the above devices and the internet.
A scope that doesn’t include end-user devices isn’t acceptable.
Elements of Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials certification requirements are organised under five technical controls:
1. Firewalls
2. Secure configuration
3. Security update management
4. User access control
5. Malware protection
Specific advice and requirements on each of these from the NCSC can be found in Cyber-Essentials-Requirements-for-Infrastructure-v3-1-January-2023 (pdf).
Scope of Cyber Essentials Plus certification at Blaze Networks
Blaze Networks’ Cyber Essentials Plus certification effectively covers the whole of Blaze’s operations, IT, and Network infrastructure.
As many of Blaze’s services are hosted on Blaze’s own cloud services infrastructure (including the Blaze Private Core Network, Blaze Cloud and Blaze Vault). These services are especially in-scope for Cyber Essentials Plus assessment and certification.
Interested in improving your network’s security? Let us know and we’ll be in touch:
Read more about:
We try to share useful and topical information – it’s not all about Blaze !
Like us to review your Network?
Is security of increasing concern?
Is the network keeping pace with changing requirements and enabling your digital evolution?
A network assessment can help. Many businesses skip regular network technology reviews – which can lead to failed cloud adoption projects. Problems occur mainly because the foundations to support cloud technology has not been able to evolve from the legacy network equipment that has been in place for many years (decades, in a lot of cases). The other side of this is businesses’ cyber attack surfaces are increasing and this is leaving huge gaps in security.
The Wide Area Network that a Business has today is often the result of years of changes, additions, and modifications. IT and Network Managers often find themselves repeatedly having to make adjustments to maintain performance and reliability, with changes becoming increasingly burdensome. Security improvements can also be difficult to keep on top of, and changing business requirements might be stretching or be limited by the existing network design.
An Independent Network Assessment Can Identify Gaps and Solutions
Blaze can help by performing an in-depth review of your business’ IT network. In our network assessment we will look for opportunities to improve your business’ IT network and also suggest how you could make the network easier to manage and how to address any gaps in your cyber security.
Blaze is a private network provider, who specialises in designing, delivering, and managing Software Defined network (SD-WAN) solutions with security built in from the ground-up. When performing a network assessment, we examine and report on:
- Existing network infrastructure
- The potential (or otherwise) for a network update or refresh to match anticipated business needs.
- Broadband availability and performance
- Network security, including a Vulnerability Scan of the network
- An assessment of existing hardware, covering such aspects as end-of-life and end-user support
- Future potential of any existing MPLS network.
- Feasibility of moving to a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)
We are offering this Network Assessment at no-charge (free) up to a value of £5,000 of consulting time (most Assessments would be completed within this).
The offer is available to businesses with an existing Wide Area Network.
Taking advantage of Blaze Networks’ assessment will determine if your infrastructure is capable of scaling with modern day cloud technologies whilst protecting your attack surface from cyber threats.
Please do get in touch – We’d love to discuss your network and to speak with you soon!
“
“We couldn’t ask for a better network provider.
They are more than just a supplier; they are a partner for us. Blaze act in a consultative capacity, and we often bounce ideas off them as part of our strategic reviews. They are always willing to help us, even if it goes outside the boundaries of our contract.
They provide excellent customer service and have a very good technical team.”
IT Director | Hollywood Bowl
“
“I can’t fault the service we have received from Blaze: they do the work in a timely, efficient and professional manner, making sure that everything is meticulously documented. If there is ever a problem, they react immediately to resolve it.”
Director | Oliver Bonas
Partners
We partner with leading manufacturers like Microsoft, Fortinet, Veeam, Bitdefender, Cisco, Lenovo and other industry-leaders.
In doing so, Blaze have access to a vast array of products that allow us to overcome our customers’ business challenges and requirements.
Microsoft
Blaze is a Microsoft Solutions Partner and Tier 1 Microsoft CSP Partner. We specialise in Microsoft 365 (including Teams and Teams Phone System), in Microsoft On-Premise and Hosted / Cloud Infrastructure (including Azure), and enable businesses to continue their digital evolution by fully exploiting the latest capabilities of Microsoft products as they evolve.
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work, Blaze has demonstrated a broad capability to help customers boost productivity and make the shift to hybrid work using Microsoft 365.
Fortinet
Blaze is an Expert Partner of Fortinet, a global industry leader in the supply of secure networking infrastructure systems. Fortinet are our technology partner of choice when building customer-specific Private SD-WANs, and Blaze is one of only a handful of Fortinet SD-WAN Specialization Partners in the UK and a Fortinet top-level Expert Partner. Blaze is also a Fortinet-accredited Managed Secure Solutions Provider (MSSP) and Integrator Fortinet partner. A Leader in several of Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, the Fortinet platform combines excellent performance with advanced security features, superb manageability, and excellent Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per Mbps.
Veeam
Veeam is a highly respected leader in cloud-based backup and recovery software, data protection and advanced monitoring in the data centre.
Blaze is a Veeam Cloud and Service Provider Silver Partner and we have combined Veeam technology with our highly secure Blaze Cloud™ infrastructure to produce BlazeVault™, a highly dependable, secure, and resource-efficient solution which will keep downtime to an absolute minimum in the event of data loss in operational systems or ransomware attack.
Bitdefender
Blaze is a Bitdefender Gold MSP Partner. Bitdefender is a global cybersecurity leader protecting over 500 million systems through OEM technology partnerships, including with many global IT companies. Tests show it is unmatched in Attack Prevention. Based on Bitdefender technology, Blaze Endpoint Protection hardens endpoints to prevent malware and malicious attacks, and it provides the investigation and remediation capabilities needed to dynamically respond to security incidents when they evade protection controls. Blaze Managed EDR keeps your organisation safe with 24×7 security monitoring, advanced attack prevention, detection and remediation.
Cisco
Cisco has long been the world’s pre-eminent network systems vendor, particularly for technology used at the core of major corporate networks and the internet. In addition to using Cisco equipment within our customers’ private networks, Blaze incorporates Cisco technology into the heart of our own network operations; the Blaze Private Core Network is built utilising Enterprise-class CISCO core routing equipment.