**Ricoh RansomCare** Local Government
Case Study | Newport City Council
Newport City Council bolsters data defences with ‘unique’ ransomware solution from Ricoh
Faced with the growing threat of a ransomware attack and the financial, service and reputational damage it could cause, Newport City Council and its shared services partner SRS Wales have deployed a Ricoh cyber security solution. Understood by the council as a ‘unique solution’, RansomCare delivers a last line of defence, peace of mind and good value for money.
Name
Newport City Council
Location
Newport, South Wales
Size
6,500 staff including schools
Activity
Local Government
Challenges
Increasing number and intensity of ransomware attacks generally
High financial and operational cost of ransomware attack
Apparent increasing number of effective attacks on the public sector
Benefits
Adds an additional, military-grade wall of cyber security
Minimises threat of financial loss, service disruption and reputation damage
Delivers a robust, value for money security solution
Understood to be a ‘unique’ last line of defence
Solution
Ricoh RansomCare
Newport in South Wales is a university city and has one of the most significant regeneration programmes in the UK, with investments delivering huge transformation and creating new business opportunities. The city has recently become home to the £100 million International Convention Centre Wales at the Celtic Manor is known for hosting international events including The Ryder Cup and NATO summit. The city’s council is a single tier unitary authority responsible for the administration of all areas of local government. It is the eighth largest council in Wales and provides all major services such as education, social services, planning, waste management and highways.
Newport City Council serves more than 150,000 people and has a duty of care to protect the data it holds about those citizens in a large and diverse number of IT systems. Unlike commercial organisations, where data has a financial value, local authority data has no defined financial value. However, the volume of that data and its importance for local service delivery is crucial and therefore of potentially greater value to criminals looking to extort money using malicious means like ransomware. Criminals use advanced ransomware solutions - which can often by-pass traditional IT security – to encrypt data files and then demand a ransom to unlock them.
The council already has an array of robust data security systems and policies implemented and managed jointly with its shared services organisation, SRS Wales. But according to Mark Bleazard, Digital Services Manager at Newport City Council the threat to data security especially from ransomware is increasing.
The threat landscape has risen a couple of notches over the last few years. As a local authority we haven’t thought of ourselves as a major target. But there’s probably a perception that we have lesser defences than private or central government organisations. There have been several attacks on councils costing millions in time, money, service continuity and damage to reputation. The impact of services not being available is huge.
Newport City Council has a corporate risk register reported annually which highlights important threats and includes issues like finance and Brexit. More recently, cyber security has ranked consistently as one of the top threats to the council.
The council is an existing Ricoh managed print customer and had been approached by Ricoh about its new security solution RansomCare. The council’s decision was also influenced by speaking to another local council that has rolled out RansomCare successfully.
Our initial reaction was a bit dismissive, but we were impressed when we saw a demonstration of RansomCare. It refocused us to the huge impact of ransomware and that those attacks were getting a lot nastier and more significant than in the past. Also, the investment was relatively modest in terms of what we were getting in return.
Newport CC has deployed the Ricoh RansomCare solution to strengthen its existing information security measures. Based on BullWall software, RansomCare detects ransomware attacks by looking into the heuristics of data files such as pdfs, spreadsheets or word processing ones stored on local and cloud storage platforms. It is a military-grade solution that combats viruses that manage to break through traditional perimeter defences. Automated built-in scripts hunt for and contain intruders, locking down any files and devices that have been infected.
Part of the solution involved a proof of value exercise where Ricoh worked with Newport City Council and SRS Wales to test the software with a dummy virus and a ring-fenced system to ensure it worked effectively in the council’s specific IT environment. The exercise also included an impact assessment measuring metrics such as number of staff and cost of service downtime to give the council a realistic picture of investment verses risk.
RansomCare has been set up to protect all shared data on file servers. The next phase of deployment will see RansomCare applied to applications like Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive when these are rolled out to council staff.
RansomCare was implemented by the council and SRS Wales with consultancy and support from Ricoh. The solution was purchased through a Procurement Services managed services framework agreement.
The benefit for Newport City Council is that RansomCare sits in the background, requires minimal management or monitoring and supplements existing cyber security measures with a defence against attack. Significantly, it also provides the council with peace of mind that should there be an incident, it has one of the best, military-grade anti-ransomware solutions in place.
"Newport CC, working with SRS Wales, has lots of security systems and fundamentally they do a good job. But, as with any system, you can’t guarantee 100 percent protection. However, we felt that RansomCare was unique in that if everything else fails this was the catch-all last line of defence protecting our data.”
Ricoh Solution/Products
BullWall Software
Ricoh Consultancy and training services
The council was all too aware of the increasing threat of ransomware with several high-profile attacks not just in the private sector but also local government organisations. Bleazard says, “You can not afford to be complacent - other incidents in the news have shown us the consequences if one of these things were to hit us. RansomCare is good value for money and it gives us greater confidence.”
Newport CC, working with SRS Wales, has lots of security systems and fundamentally they do a good job. But, as with any system, you can’t guarantee 100 percent protection. However, we felt that RansomCare was unique in that if everything else fails this was the catch all, last line of defence protecting our data.
Ricoh is proud to be an awarded supplier on the Procurement Services Managed Service framework. From data security software to customer communication management, the framework gives access to solutions which enable organisations to transform their business processes whilst reducing operating costs. Plus, a direct award option means simple, straightforward procurement for public sector organisations.Mark Bleazard, Digital Services Manager, Newport City Council, says, “Using the Procurement Services Framework enables the council to secure high-quality products and services that deliver value for public spend and a fast and simple procurement process.”
Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, communication services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2020, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 19.06 billion USD.
For further information, please visit www.ricoh.co.uk
