Opportunistic multi-national consultancies are inflating the price of cyber-security testing in the UK, it’s claimed by the founders of a security testing platform.
Avord says consultancies who provide services to businesses, sometimes charged at twice the daily rate of an independent tester – often referred to as ethical hackers. Many businesses complain the cost of testing is too expensive. Why use consultancies then? A skills shortage in-house, as small firms especially lack employee skills and knowledge to carry out security testing.
Of those hit by a cyber-attack, Avord has found from a survey across sectors that many when breached find it occurred partly as a result of issues with the security testing process. And a majority of companies report seeing an increase in the number of data breaches: that can mean losing customers, legal fees, reputational damage and fines from regulators.
Avord, which launched in London yesterday, as an online platform proposes to bring security testers together with UK businesses seeking testing. The founders of the platform say it cuts out the middle men. Free to use, Avord provides automated scheduling and tracking of security tests, delivering a view of all tests across an estate through a risk and reporting dashboard.
Brian Harrison, founder and CEO, said: “Quite simply, security testing has become too expensive for many UK businesses. Companies are struggling to cope with the ever-increasing threats impacting on their attempts to secure systems at current costs. Unless something changes, businesses will be forced to cut corners, and this will inevitably mean there are more data breaches and system outages.
“AVORD has been designed to disrupt the current security testing model by cutting out the costly ‘middle-man’ consultancies and allows businesses to directly manage and engage security testers. This means that whereas industry currently pays up to £1,100 per day for cyber-security testing, that cost will be reduced to approximately £600, collectively saving the UK retail sector more than £600m annually.”
More in the February 2018 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
