The National Portrait Gallery seeks security in all of its operations; including cyber-security, for example against ever more sophisticated phishing and ransomware attacks.
With several of the central London landmark’s core IT contracts up for renewal, Nicky Dowland, Head of IT at the National Portrait Gallery and his colleagues began assessing the market, to identify preferred partners and solutions. A key objective was to achieve Cyber Essentials certification – the UK Government-backed scheme designed to improve cybersecurity in the public and private sectors.
Nicky says: “We’re the custodians of a very important part of our country’s history, so it’s vital that our data security provisions are as robust and cost-effective as possible. For example, a successful ransomware attack could have a serious impact on our reputation and, as a result, our ability to attract the levels of funding we need.
“We had been aware of Kaspersky Lab for some time, of course, but what really made the difference for us was an excellent demonstration of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, which really opened our eyes to the range of functionality it offers.
“Our initial focus was on antivirus, but we quickly found out that the Kaspersky Lab solution provides so much more. It was great to discover that it could deliver on a range of our requirements – for encryption, patch management and anti-ransomware, for example.
“All of its functionality could be monitored very efficiently using a single management console – and there were also additional features in there too, that we could deploy in the future.
“It was very impressive, from the strength of the technology behind the solution, its cost effectiveness – and the breadth of the security elements within the platform, that would enable us to achieve Cyber Essentials accreditation. Overall, it looked a very good fit for our needs – and would also enable us to take care of several requirements through a single solution with a single supplier.” Refining, improving and developing.
The gallery selected Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced, protecting 40 virtual servers and around 300 PCs and devices, for its London-based teams and those working elsewhere.
A year on, Nicky Dowland says: “It’s proved to have been a really good decision. We’ve achieved our Cyber Essentials accreditation, and, with Kaspersky Lab’s help, quicker than anticipated, because we haven’t had to engage with multiple suppliers.”
“We have confidence in the security that the solution provides and the support that comes with it when we need it. It’s working well in the background, we’ve been able to deploy software quickly, things are updating regularly, and we can monitor progress and performance very easily with the management console.
“It’s great to be able to segment our users and apply different policies and ways of working to suit the needs of individual teams – and to be able to test these things before rolling them out. We can update our laptops too without having to connect to the network, which is a key feature for us.
“It’s very reassuring to know that we have the necessary fundamental protections in place and we can rely on them. It’s also good to know that Kaspersky Lab is constantly refining, improving and developing its technology and solutions, so we feel that we’re up-to-date with the latest thinking.
“When we contracted with Kaspersky Lab, we calculated we could save around 40pc of our historic costs by getting a very good price and using a single supplier with a single solution. And 12 months on, that is what we’ve achieved, which, as a publicly-funded organisation, is very important for us to be able demonstrate. Added to this, it’s impossible to calculate the value of ensuring that our data is safe.
“The Kaspersky Lab team is hard working, very responsive and committed to us. The company also understands our position as a charity, our specific challenges and requirements and works with us accordingly. We trust the Kaspersky Lab team, and this feels like a long-term relationship that we can develop and enhance in the years to come.”
Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery – Queen Elizabeth I.
