How Breast Cancer Now fights cyber crime: one alert at a time

What challenges were they facing?

 

This means that Breast Cancer Now were handling two primary kinds of personal data: financial data related to their donors and other fundraising activities, and beneficiary data related to those engaging with their digital services.

 

This will be a familiar model to most charities, as these are the most common types of digital data collection in the sector.

 

"Since the merger, there are two massive CRM systems to integrate."

 

- Brigid Macdonald - Head of IT, Breast Cancer Now

 

All organisations have a legal duty to protect any personal information that they collect. But charities face greater scrutiny than corporate businesses. This is due to two main reasons: the importance of supporter trust in securing funding, and the ethical duty to safeguard the personal information of vulnerable service users.

 

 

How did Skurio help Breast Cancer Now to overcome these challenges?

 

"The attraction was having more of an eye on the unknown. It was at a time when cyber security was becoming more important. We’d had to deal with a ransomware attack and other things like that. It just felt right."

 

- Brigid Macdonald - Head of IT, Breast Cancer Now

 

They began by introducing the BreachAlert solution – an automated tool that monitors cyber risk by searching for critical data and information around the clock and providing instant alerts. BreachAlert uses Cyber Threat Intelligence to extend data collection to social channels and specialist forums to look for threats that are specific to your organisation.

 

Like many organisations using the tool, Breast Cancer Now benefits from automated monitoring of the surface, deep and Dark Web to look for sensitive organisational information, including account information and IP addresses.

 

Skurio was one part of a wider investment in cyber security, as leaders at Breast Cancer Now prioritised the importance of cyber security in a changing threat landscape.

 

"There was one specific ransomware attack where we got off a bit lightly. I think at the time there were a few patchy practices. I’m not going to lie and claim that we’re perfect, because we’re not. There are very few companies that could claim perfection without spending a small country’s GDP on it."

 

- Brigid Macdonald - Head of IT, Breast Cancer Now

 

 

Getting started was simple and easy

 

Many charities exploring next-gen cyber security solutions may have concerns about the complexity of the products and the level of expertise needed to use them.

 

The team at Breast Cancer Now found the Skurio dashboard easy to use. The onboarding process was smooth, and the interface was simple and end-user friendly.

 

"It really is quite self-explanatory. I wish all onboarding processes were that simple."

 

- Brigid Macdonald - Head of IT, Breast Cancer Now

 

 

What benefits did the charity experience?

 

Skurio automated risk monitoring provides the team at Breast Cancer Now with peace of mind. One of the benefits of the automated monitoring solution is the rapid response time.

 

In the event of a breach, organisations must act quickly. The problem is, cybersecurity teams usually don’t know a breach has happened until it’s too late, and harm has already been done.

 

Skurio’s solutions allow charities like Breast Cancer Now to scan for threats in real time and respond to them as quickly as possible – thus drastically reducing the risk posed to any sensitive data.

 

This peace of mind doesn’t just apply to the charity. For any organisation involved in fundraising activity, supporter trust is vital. Without it, organisations face an arduous task of rebuilding their reputation. Sophisticated risk management platforms allow charities to provide the highest level of assurance to their supporters that their data is being protected by market-leading technology.

 

"The support is really good. It’s nice to know we’ve got reassurance. The ‘Ask an Analyst’ feature is reassuring for us because we’re quite a small team.’"

 

- Brigid Macdonald - Head of IT, Breast Cancer Now

 

Breast Cancer Now also recognised the value of an automated risk monitoring solution like Skurio from a GDPR perspective. The ICO clearly states that organisations must demonstrate a commitment to keeping user data secure. Skurio’s high level of protection is a great way for organisations to show that data security is a real priority.

 

 

Building a secure future

 

Skurio is just one part of Breast Cancer Now’ extensive cybersecurity infrastructure.

 

Automated monitoring provides reassurance to the charity’s cybersecurity team that all their other systems are working. Scanning for breaches and finding none shows that all the other defences which the team has put in place are doing their job correctly.

 

Breast Cancer Now continue to work with Skurio and are currently examining ways to further integrate their innovative solutions into new areas of digital service delivery.

 

Skurio and Breast Cancer Now plan to roll out new features to further protect constituent data. One of these involves monitoring typosquatting to identify fraudulent domains which imitate the charity and could be used by cyber criminals to perpetrate fraud.