Accenture and Vodafone launch SME cybersecurity offering

Vodafone UK and Accenture have launched a new portfolio of enterprise-grade cybersecurity services to help small businesses detect, react to, and recover from cyber-attacks. Vodafone Managed Security Services will help firms boost their defences in a time when UK companies face a record level of attempted hacks.

Cyber security is one of the key priorities for executives and Chief Information Officers in 2021. The Covid-19 lockdown saw public and private organisations become more reliant on decentralised digital operation systems than ever before – something which opened them up to cyber-attacks in a way never before seen. Around 65% of organisations in the UK were either breached or exposed to an attack in 2020 as a result.

The situation does not look like it will improve in 2021 either, with insurance firm Hiscox estimating that more than 65,000 hacking attempts are made each day in the UK, and at least one small business is successfully attacked every 19 seconds. For small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), the losses incurred by a cyberattack could be the difference between survival and collapse – especially during such a volatile economic period. In order to help shore up the defences of SMEs across Britain, Accenture has teamed up with Vodafone for a new cybersecurity offering.

Following a strategic relationship announced last year, Anne Sheehan, Business Director at Vodafone UK, stated, “We’re delighted to have partnered with Accenture to provide best-in-class, affordable cybersecurity solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses, who often lack the resource or hiring power to keep on top of rapidly evolving cyber-attacks.”

By collaborating with IT consulting giant Accenture, the Vodafone Managed Security Services platform strengthens Vodafone’s existing portfolio of cybersecurity solutions, adding a Cyber Exposure Diagnostic (CED) function to help businesses understand how well they’d fare against a cyber threat and identify where breaches are most likely to happen. It also includes a penetration testing capability to shield businesses by carrying out simulated attacks to identify vulnerabilities in vital IT infrastructure before they’re exploited ​by bad actors, and boosts phishing awareness – helping businesses educate their employees and turn them into an additional line of defence.

UK customers will also benefit from round-the-clock access to Vodafone and Accenture’s team of analysts and cyber specialists. A release from Vodafone meanwhile announced that additional services such as breach response, forensic services, managed detection and response, and managed firewall will follow shortly as part of the new offering.

Comparing poor cybersecurity to “leaving the front door unlocked,” Harpreet Sidhu, who leads Accenture’s Managed Security Services globally, noted, “As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated and prevalent, SMEs need to ensure they are properly equipped to assess, detect and respond to threats as soon as possible.”