Our new digital systems are bringing lots of benefits. They give us more consistent information we need to help our customers better and quicker access to that information. They help teams work together more efficiently to deliver a great service. And they have the potential to greatly increase self-service options for customers who would prefer to use online tools to deal with us. However, storing and using data about our customers – some of whom are vulnerable or have shared sensitive information with us – is also a huge responsibility and one that we take very seriously.
Cyber crime is a global problem and the media is full of examples where even large and trusted organisations have been hacked. Sometimes this brings down systems and seriously interferes with business as usual. This can disrupt services to customers and cause financial losses. Much more seriously though, hackers sometimes steal data and leak it or threaten to do so unless organisations meet their demands.
Futures may not be a high profile organisation, but we’re not immune from these risks. Other housing associations have already been targeted – in some cases with customer data being exposed or services heavily disrupted. So it’s a very real threat and one we’re working hard to stop.
While we already have strong security measures in place – including meeting the national Cyber Essentials standard - we are far from complacent. This year, for example, we brought in a specialist security company to provide 24/7 monitoring. This service is provided by one of the leading cyber security protection companies in the world and keeps an eye on our technology for unusual activity 365 days a year. Unusual behaviour that might signal an attack raises the alarm and our ICT team are alerted quickly if action is needed to help keep hackers out.
Other steps we’ve taken include exercises and planning to help us ensure that we can solve problems quickly and effectively if our attempts to keep attackers out fail and upscaling our in-house protection.
While it’s almost impossible to keep every attacker out – as proved by recent incidents at major organisations including Microsoft and the NHS – we’re committed to do all we can to help us continue supporting our customers come what may, and even more importantly ensuing our customers’ private data doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
