Cyber security FAQs

Bywater is certified by Cyber Essentials, a UK government-backed scheme that protects organisations against the most common cyber attacks. The scheme helps us to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data stored on devices that connect to the internet.

Cyber Essentials Certification requires that we use and configure a firewall to protect all our internet-connected devices. The aim is to ensure that only safe and necessary network services can be accessed from the internet.

The Cyber Essentials scheme addresses the most common internet-based attacks that use widely available tools and that need very little skill for the attacker to use.

We adhere to the 5 key controls of Cyber Essentials:

• A firewall to secure the internet connection
• Secure settings for devices and software
• Control over who has access to your data and services
• Protecting our business from viruses and other malware – at Bywater we use Webroot SecureAnywhere Endpoint protection
• Keeping devices and software up to date

We support hybrid working, enabling employees to work remotely as well as in the office. The remote equipment, applications and connections they use are subject to the same stringent measures that we apply within our head office. In addition:

• employees use dedicated Bywater laptops for remote working
• firewalls are used to secure the internet connection
• remote access can only be set up by our support team

Services enabled on the firewall are kept to a minimum and any changes are monitored daily by our IT support company. If a service is no longer required it is removed immediately from the firewall. Requests for new services have to be approved by a director and installed by our IT support company.

Data is hosted on the Bywater’s servers, not in the cloud.