Public Sector Focus magazine: Your trusted data partner

It is often said that data is the new oil. Recognising data as a highly valuable resource is undoubtedly appropriate, but the process of realising value from it is far less obvious than from yesteryear’s infamous ‘black gold’. While we may consider the expression to be a crude (pun intended) oversimplification of the digital world, at CCL we do see data as a highly valuable though often under utilised-asset. We’ve made it our core mission to enable our clients to realise powerful, value-adding insights from their data; ensure their data can maximise business productivity and performance; and safeguard their data from harmful interference.

For health and social care, there’s also the overriding obligation of data protection and patient confidentiality. Cyber criminals pose an ever-increasing and sophisticated threat to public sector organisations just as much as corporates, be that to steal data or compromise operations through malicious attacks; nor is any organisation immune to the risks of a discontented employee and the wilful damage they too can inflict.

Many of our clients are routinely targeted by highly determined adversaries; the consequences of their success having potentially catastrophic operational results.  We help our clients achieve an optimum balance between cyber security risk and reward—enabling them to respond effectively to potential data security issues. Through our state-of-the-art Security Operations Centre (SOC), we provide 24/7 intelligence-led monitoring and response in a cost-efficient way - delivering round-the-clock peace of mind.  And using our in-depth knowledge of technology and criminal tradecraft, we can penetration-test your networks and websites to identify and address the weaknesses that hackers prey on.  We’re often contacted in the aftermath of a data security incident: here, we help our clients to respond, remediate and recover. We can also bring to bear our deep investigation skills, including reverse engineering, to uncover root causes, identify bad actors and to support insurance and legal claims.

Our public sector track record started in law enforcement; over the last 20 years we’ve been a trusted data partner to police forces and agencies, testament to the standards and integrity that we live by. Investigating everything from computers to smart devices, we’ve developed a strong reputation for technical innovation and creative, pragmatic thinking - always finding a way where others see only dead-ends.  We now also use our digital investigation skills and capabilities to assist public and private sector clients to protect business value, from workplace misconduct investigations to supporting civil litigation and private prosecutions.

Alongside our cyber security unit sits our eDiscovery and data analytics division, rounding off our 360 degree take on data and providing another layer of expertise when it comes to handling large data sets and distilling meaning or evidence from them efficiently and cost-effectively. Whether bringing or defending legal claims, or responding to FOIA or GDPR requests, or supporting a professional enquiry, our clients rely on us to ensure they can defend their interests whilst complying with legislation.  We also use our wealth of experience to help our clients navigate challenging information compliance and GDPR-related issues.  This can empower them to consolidate and operationalise their often-disparate data holdings and inspire trust and confidence in customers and other stakeholders.

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