NHS Test and Trace has selected British cybersecurity company Risk Ledger to manage cybersecurity risks in their supply chain as a proactive measure to mitigate the increasing risks NHS and other critical national infrastructure organisations face from supply chain cyber-attacks.
The Risk Ledger platform will give the UK government funded service all the tools they need to manage cybersecurity risks in their supply chain at speed for a low per-supplier cost – at least 60% cheaper than traditional solutions.
Cybersecurity risks in the supply chain can include third parties failing to encrypt sensitive data when it is being transferred. NHS Test and Trace, established to track and help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in England, will take advantage of Risk Ledger’s key innovation which is its secure ‘social network’ allowing organisations to connect and share risk data securely, quickly, and easily. This gives organisations like NHS Test and Trace unparalleled visibility of their supply chain and a comprehensive set of data to identify, measure and mitigate supply chain security risks at scale.
Major supply chain cybersecurity breaches at Solarwinds and Microsoft in recent months have put the challenge of securing supply chains at the top of the agenda for organisations around the world.
Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Matt Warman MP, said: “The government is working tirelessly to secure the nation online and grow the UK’s £8.9 billion cybersecurity industry as we build back better from the pandemic. We’re helping SMEs develop innovative products and services and it’s great to see Risk Ledger, one of the firms we’ve supported, win this contract to protect the Test and Trace system and support the national effort against coronavirus.”
Risk Ledger’s client base includes organisations like BAE AI, City of London Police, Telenor, Schroder’s Personal Wealth and ASOS. Risk Ledger CEO and Co-Founder Haydn Brooks said: “NHS Test and Trace is essentially the biggest new start-up in the UK healthcare market so we are delighted they have chosen to take advantage of our ability to provide enhanced visibility of their supply chain risks. I am proud we will be part of the effort to secure this incredibly important supply chain.
“Healthcare organisations and their supply chains handle lots of highly sensitive data and have a high rate of data breaches. We have already seen during the COVID-19 pandemic that bad actors are actively targeting supply chains to access data and cause disruption.”