Dead in a ditch - A race to the bottom

We know - you’ve had enough.

Right now, the word politics alone is probably enough to send shudders down the spine of most of us - and don’t even think about mentioning the word Brexit. There is a lot of discussion on who is winning the race to top the political polls but how about which of our political parties is leading the pack in the cyber risk race? Well the super clever team at KYND have been busy analysing the results. Keep reading to find out whether Boris really will be dead in the ditch or perhaps Corbyn and Farage have pipped him to the post….

So how did we do it?

With KYND magic of course! (And a little bit of data).

All KYND products now include a comparative cyber risk analyser, which is what we have used to compare the UK Political parties. Our analyser measures how well an organisation is managing the operational processes that directly affect its cyber risks and how this performance compares with similar organisations. The analyser ranks the performance either inline, falling behind or weaker than these other organisations. The analysis covers four operational cyber risk processes;

• The use of out of date or vulnerable software
• The management of its Internet Domains
• The presence of mis-configured services
• The management of security certificates

We ran 8 British political parties (disclaimer: we did not include Northern Irish parties) through this analysis in order to see where they rank in the cyber risk race- and the all-important results are in…

UK Political Parties vs other organisations (See where they rank in the race to be cyber safe)

Based on these results, we can reveal that:

1. The parties at the top of the league are:

• The Brexit Party
• The Labour Party
• The Scottish National Party

(All performing almost all processes as well as the rest of the group)

2. The mid table parties are:

• Liberal Democrats
• Green Party
• Plaid Cymru

(Some processes were being performed less diligently than the rest of the group)

3. And finally, the parties which are in the ditch:

• UKIP
• Conservatives

(Most processes were being performed less diligently than the rest of the group)

So… what now?

Alas, Boris Johnson has in-fact ended up ‘dead in a ditch’ when it comes to the race to be cyber safe, with the Conservative Party ranking in the bottom two when it comes to managing their cyber risk. Perhaps a shocking statistic considering that the Conservatives are the party in power.

Most worryingly, no single party succeeded in being as good as the best of their group in all four categories, the tiresome state of British politics also being reflected in their inability to manage cyber risk with good operational processes. With the leaders of the country failing to be cyber resilient, you may be wondering where that leaves the rest of us? Not to fear - KYND is here to help. To make sure you’re not lagging behind when it comes to managing your businesses cyber risks (and ensure you’re better than Boris), or for any more information, get in touch today.