Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (AIM:CCS, “Crossword”, the “Company” or the “Group”), the cybersecurity solutions company focused on cyber strategy and risk, today announces that two UK universities have gone live with its third party supply chain assurance platform Rizikon Assurance. The contract win follows on from Crossword’s attendance at the UK’s UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association) national conference earlier this month.

UCISA is the professional body for digital practitioners in Education. They represent almost all the major UK universities and higher education colleges with a growing membership among other educational institutions and commercial organisations interested in information systems and technology in UK education. Crossword is a UCISA member and the following quote from the UCISA Strategic plan particularly resonates with the Company: “UCISA recognises that the Higher Education and Further Education Sectors continue to operate in a challenging period of sustained change. As a result, the need to seek out best practice from both within and outside the sector – as well as the best products and services – has never been greater, to ensure the [UCISA] community has the agility and creativity needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow”.

Rizikon Assurance, Crossword’s leading cyber security product, is a SaaS platform that enables medium to large companies to assess and manage all risks from their suppliers.

The greatest cybersecurity threats to organisations of any size arise from suppliers, third parties and connected technologies. This is because their third party nature makes it very difficult to assure and control them in a timely manner. Recent research independently conducted for Crossword of over 200 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) found that 83 per cent. of CISOs viewed “ensuring that the entire supply chain is water-tight in its ability to defend and recover against threat actors” as a challenge.

Sean Arrowsmith, Group Sales Director for Crossword Cybersecurity, commented: “At a time when supply chain attacks are being increasingly used to infiltrate educational institutions, we are finding more and more universities and colleges are taking a proactive approach to managing their supply chain risk.  Being a member of the UCISA network has really helped Crossword to foster close collaboration within the community in order to remove cyber risk so that effort can be spent on educational outcomes.”

You can learn more about the full range cyber security products and consulting services available from Crossword Cybersecurity by visiting www.crosswordcybersecurity.com.