Belfast Met has been successful in renewing its Cyber Essentials Plus certification for the second year running.
Following three days of detailed and extensive testing by an external IT security assessor to ensure the College met all the requirements, Belfast Met is the only further education college in Northern Ireland to achieve this high standard of IT certification.
The entire IT infrastructure of the College was tested to ensure it met stringent technical security standards. This included configuration and management of firewalls; secure configuration of all servers, laptops and desktop computers; user access control to ensure all user passwords are fully secure and systems are using multi-factor authentication; malware, virus and ransomware protection software and management of security updates for all operating systems and software.
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Having these security standards in place also coincides with the Colleges Digital by Design strategy. This initiative involves Belfast Met using digital solutions to enhance teaching & learning and improve how we work by following a number of actions including; delivering online classes across the full scope of teaching – HE, FE, Academies, Training and Apprenticeships etc.
This is a huge accomplishment for the College and reflects the persistent work of Belfast Met’s IT Department to keep security standards at the highest level and keeping in line with our Digital by Design strategy. This Cyber Essentials Plus certification confirms Belfast Met complies with the requirements of the Cyber Essentials Scheme and that it takes cyber security and data protection very seriously.
Aidan Sloane, Director of Corporate Services said: “I am very proud of our team here at Belfast Met who have worked hard in helping us achieve this accolade.
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“Achieving the Cyber Essentials Plus for the second year in a row is a huge achievement for Belfast Met. It also highlights and demonstrates the professionalism and commitment of the Belfast Met IT team to ensure the cyber safety of our students and staff.”
Liam Downey, Head of IT said: “Cyber security throughout Belfast Met is our top priority and something that is always progressing. To receive this accreditation is an honour and an appreciation as a team, on all the hard work we do every year to keep on top of technical security standards.”
Source: Written from press release
