Established in 2001, the McLaren group of companies operates in construction, property investment and development in the UK and the United Arab Emirates. Their markets include commercial offices, mixed-use buildings, residential, retail, education, distribution and logistics, hotels and leisure, in both the private and public sectors. Focused on quality of service, their core values are trust, integrity and honesty whilst being customer focused. With around 700 employees, McLaren is a highly successful, privately owned business that continues to grow. In the year to 31 July 2018, the group saw its operating profit increase by 4.5 per cent, with turnover of £585.6 million.
Complete cyber assessment to develop plan for improving security posture
Short-term and long-term solutions developed by experts
Ongoing vulnerability reviews with forward plan
The Challenge
McLaren Construction wanted to ensure that their security systems complied with GDPR as well as meeting the high standards expected by their clients. An assessment of security was required, laying the foundations for a plan to increase their defences and maintain an appropriate level of security to protect against internal threats as well as external cyber threats.
The Solution
Softcat worked with McLaren Construction, using the Cyber Assessment service to develop an IT Security Framework project. Softcat worked through four steps to deliver the security framework:
- Discovery, with an assessment of the current security posture.
- Increasing and improving the security posture with high impact, low cost options. Cyber assessments and vulnerability reviews were then run against McLaren’s infrastructure to look at how the improvements were performing.
- Developing a forward plan of high impact projects to drive forward and improve security even more.
- Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditations were achieved.
The Benefits
Developing and delivering McLaren Construction’s IT security framework has allowed the organisation to achieve Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation, as well as building a robust information security management system for IT and developing security defences against cyber threats. The framework protects their data and users, as well as their clients. With a three year plan in place, McLaren Construction can look forward to strengthening their security posture even more, best placed to protect against new threats and keep their systems secure.
Why Softcat?
Realising that they didn’t have the appropriate skillset inhouse, McLaren Construction looked to source an expert partner to guide and advise on cyber security. Softcat provided a complete service, offering a short-term solution, giving advice to achieve the Cyber Essentials accreditations, as well as looking at the long-term vision, identifying areas of improvement and preparing security projects for three years, until 2022.
Highlights
- Achieved Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus accreditations
- Improved security posture with plan for ongoing improvements
- Framework protects data and clients, compliant with GDPR