Whatever sector you operate in and whatever your long-term business goals, your network is the foundation of your future success. With the distributed workforce now firmly established and customer interactions taking place over an evolving range of channels, business is now truly interconnected, with seamless, secure dataflows its lifeblood.
Collaboration with Exponential-e will strengthen the university's cyber security capabilities as part of its long-term cyber strategy.
January 2025 - Exponential-e, a pioneer in cloud, connectivity, communications, and cyber security, has been selected by the University of Sussex to provide a fully managed Cyber Security Operations Centre (SOC) to detect and respond to cyber threats in real time.
Located near Brighton in the south of England, the University of Sussex is a leading higher education and research institution, home to over 18,500 students and nearly 3,500 staff. As part of its ongoing commitment to enhancing cyber security, the University has created a Cyber Security Programme, partnering with Exponential-e to implement a fully managed SOC, to support its vision.
The SOC, which will operate as a hybrid model, will see Exponential-e work in close collaboration with the University's internal IT Services team. Together they will ensure that cyber security capabilities are strengthened, providing 24 / 7, 365 days a year monitoring, threat detection and response.
The key benefits that the managed SOC service will deliver is an increased capacity for earlier detection and response to events, incidents, and threats to minimise disruption to IT services, leading to a reduction in the number and severity of cyber incidents that occur.
Suzanne Elmore, Cyber Security Manager, at the University of Sussex, said: "In an ever-changing threat landscape, there is a continual need for improved insight and awareness of emerging cyber threats within the University. Working with Exponential-e to deliver the managed SOC, we will be able to access an informed source of intelligence to efficiently monitor threat analysis and respond to cyber threats, 24/7."
Afshin Attari, Director of Public Sector at Exponential-e, said: "We understand the complexities of malicious behaviour and have deep rooted experience counteracting emerging threats, so we are looking forward to working with the University of Sussex to support its forward-thinking cyber strategy. The managed SOC service will not only monitor and manage threat analysis for quicker response rates to minimise IT disruption for students and staff, but it will also help to reduce the University's exposure to financial and reputational risk from cyber security threats."
The contract spans an initial period of three years following implementation, with two annual extension options to a maximum of five years total.
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15 January 2025 - Exponential-e, a pioneer in cloud, connectivity, communications, and cyber security, today announces that it has been selected by the Home Office's Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme to develop mission-critical solutions for the Government's Emergency Services Network (ESN) - the only UK company to be selected for this prestigious contract.
Working with IBM as the lead User Services supplier, Exponential-e's expertise as an ecosystem partner will be instrumental in supporting the delivery of a secure and highly available communication network, ensuring the ESN is equipped to meet the demands of emergencies.
Led by the Home Office, the ESN will implement the next generation of fast, safe, and secure voice, video, and data communication, allowing more than 300,000 frontline emergency services responders to work in tandem and coordinate efforts faster when protecting and aiding members of the public.
Police forces, fire services and ambulance trusts will be able to share live data and imagery, location reports and essential public safety information as they work on time-critical rescue and response efforts.
"We are honoured to provide a key role in this vital programme which represents a transformative step in modernising communications for emergency services across the UK," said Lee Wade, CEO, Exponential-e. "This project represents a tremendous opportunity for Exponential-e to expand our presence in the public safety sector and build on our experience in providing high-performance network and managed services."
Exponential-e will help ensure the infrastructure delivers the reliability and resilience required to enable faster access to data to frontline service users in emergency situations and serve the public more effectively.
"We are proud to support the Emergency Services Network in delivering a secure and resilient communications platform to empower frontline emergency services" said Rahul Kalia, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting UK and Ireland. "Working with our ecosystem partners, we will deliver mission-critical services for first responders to enhance safety in our communities across Great Britain. We are committed to work with the government to deliver this in a timely and cost-effective manner."
The ESN programme will see IBM, Exponential-e and ecosystem partners deliver the network and IT infrastructure for the new contract over seven years, with an option for a two-year extension.
Providing the emergency services with improved technology is a key part of the government's drive to make the nation's streets safer, which is a crucial part of the Prime Minister's Plan for Change.
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Introducing the Emergency Services Network Project
Exponential-e and the rest of IBM's partner ecosystem discuss the Emergency Services Network project, and how our collective experience and capabilities will transform the way Blue Light services are delivered across the UK.
The UK government has proposed extending its ban on ransomware payments to cover the entire public sector in an attempt to deter cybercriminal attacks and protect taxpayers.
Stoli Group USA, the US subsidiary of vodka maker Stoli, has filed for bankruptcy – and a ransomware attack is at least partly to blame.
The American branch of Stoli, which imports and distributes Stoli brands in the United States, as well as the Kentucky Owl bourbon brand it purchased in 2017, was hit by a ransomware attack in August 2024.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) represents an elegant convergence of network and security technologies as a single, end-to-end solution, perfectly suited to the modern distributed workforce and the increasingly dynamic nature of corporate networks. As a growing number of organisations are discovering, SASE has the potential to completely transform the way we design, deploy, manage, and scale corporate networks. Indeed, 60% of IT leaders are ready to fully embrace SASE by 2025*.
Despite the numerous interconnected elements now involved in effective digital transformation, the network remains the foundation of everything, ensuring any investment in new technologies delivers the best possible ROI, and that teams at all levels are empowered to deliver their very best, 24 / 7. As such, the digital transformation journey must always begin with a full network transformation.
The partnership aims to boost network efficiency and support HMLR's digital ambitions
28 October 2024 - Exponential-e, a UK cloud, connectivity, communications, and cyber security provider, today announces a new contract with HM Land Registry (HMLR) to supply Internet connectivity solutions across 12 of its local offices.
As part of the agreement, Exponential-e will deliver robust and secure Internet services for both business and guest access, including solutions for staff using GovWifi and HMLR's business clients.
The new connectivity solution provided by Exponential-e, will boost bandwidth, enhance security, and streamline corporate traffic management. These improvements are key to HMLR's longer-term vision of evolving its network structure to better meet the changing needs of the organisation and support its transition to a Gov Hub model, where possible.
Afshin Attari, Director of Public Sector and Unified Platforms at Exponential-e, said: "This project represents an important step for HM Land Registry's network infrastructure. By delivering a secure and scalable solution, we're enabling HMLR to respond to the evolving needs of its staff, clients, and guests, while ensuring seamless access to the services they rely on."
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Transforming end user support for more than 4,000 NHS staff
Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust offers a growing range of community and mental health services across Southampton, Portsmouth, and parts of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Having previously outsourced their end user support to the same provider for more than twelve years, Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust made the decision to revamp this entire function, considering ongoing issues around data visibility, unpredictable pricing, and lack of integration between different aspects of the service. The goal for this project would be to deliver seamless IT support services for more than 4,000 end users across Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust's full range of sites, while simultaneously reducing costs and conducting a full device refresh.
It was decided that the new support function would be divided amongst several technology partners, in order to take full advantage of their individual capabilities. Throughout the tender process, Exponential-e's deep commitment to digital transformation in healthcare and willingness to work closely with Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust's own teams to develop a tailored solution in response to the most specific requirements made them a clear stand-out. As a result, they were selected as Solent's sole technology partner for network and end user support.
The first areas of the contact went live in December 2022, after several months of close collaboration with Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust's own team to ensure a smooth transition, following the switch-off of the incumbent supplier's services in March of that year. This required a considerable amount of hands-on support, including out of hours, to ensure more than 4,000 staff were able to retain access to the Citrix VPN, avoiding any disruption to day-to-day operations.
As part of a wider hardware refresh, more than 4,000 new laptops were provisioned over the course of ten weeks, replacing much of the legacy technology that was still in use, including across several remote sites. An end user survey was conducted to help maximise adoption and ensure any opportunities for improvement could be identified and acted upon. With more than 2,000 responses, this provided Exponential-e with a rich pool of actionable data with which to design and optimise the new support operation.
Critical to the success of the new support function was the design and implementation of a robust IT Service Management platform, powered by ServiceNow®. By creating a domain separated instance within Exponential-e's managed service offering, Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust would not need to design and deploy the new ITSM platform from scratch, ensuring it would be ready to use on designated go-live date. At the same time, moving the function from CAPEX to OPEX allowed for greater cost control, while minimising the initial expenditure.
In order to meet Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust's specific requirements for their ticketing system, this solution was based on the Exponential-e's defined ITIL-aligned standards and service workflows, with an agreed scope for further customisation and hands-on support from Exponential-e's technical specialists included in the contract. The resulting platform combining the advantages of a proven, well-established solution with the highest levels of control and flexibility in terms of the final implementation and its ongoing development.
Following a successful transition to the new end user support function and the rollout of the ITSM platform, Exponential-e have continued to develop the operation in direct response to Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust's evolving requirements, ensuring business-critical issues can be resolved as quickly as possible. This has included recruiting extra service desk personnel, and implementing out-of-hours cover, while expanding the team's roaming tech hub to ensure all sites are properly supported. Time-to-resolution has been set out in robust SLAs and KPIs, with specific processes and escalations in place to manage high-impact events, and dedicated response engineers in place.
To optimise the efficiency and accessibility of service desk agents, Exponential-e designed and implemented an appointment-based system, ensuring staff who required hands-on IT support could access it as quickly as possible. This has since helped reduced walk-ins for IT-related issues from around 600 per month to less than 30.
The months of work put into establishing this foundation has since allowed Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust and Exponential-e to establish a culture of ongoing improvement, driven by direct collaboration daily, with Exponential-e now established as a trusted partner.
Every point of contact with end user support is tracked and monitored, and end users can provide real-time feedback on their experiences. This has resulted in 75% of tickets logged being resolved at the first point of contact, which, in turn, raised end user support's NPS score from 57, in the first live month of operations, to 90, with a 20% increase in users willing to offer feedback. Since then, the team has built on this success, recently hitting the milestone of more than 5,000 gold ratings.
This partnership continues to evolve, with ongoing collaboration between teams from both organisations ensuring IT can continue to play a key role in delivering world-class service quality to citizens across every region in which Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust is active.
Exponential-e's support and expertise has transformed the way IT is viewed across our organisation, with staff across all our sites making active use of the available tools and systems in every aspect of their work. The speed with which any issues have been resolved, and the team's willingness to think outside the box - particularly when it came to rolling out the new ITSM platform - have more than fulfilled our initial goals for network and end user support, with ample opportunities for further improvement.
Dawn Day, Head of Digital Delivery, Hampshire & IoW NHS Trust.
Secure, connected infrastructure enabling better patient outcomes and faster clinical innovation.
Discover how UK healthcare organisations are building resilient digital foundations to accelerate diagnosis, connect care, and support frontline teams. Through real-world NHS examples, see how the right infrastructure partner turns transformation into measurable impact.
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is rapidly establishing itself as the solution of choice for the next generation of enterprise networks, where optimal control, visibility, and scalability are essential. In the first quarter of 2024 alone, the SASE market experienced a 23% surge, as more and more organisations began taking advantage of its capabilities.
On the morning of 12th September 2024, the UK Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, pinpointed three 'big shifts' that would be required to transform the NHS:
Although the rise in money criminals have generated through ransomware has risen by what may appear to be a small percentage amount (approximately 2% from US $449.1 million to US $459.8 million), this is in spite of disruption caused to ransomware-as-a-service operations such as LockBit and ALPHV/BlackCat by law enforcement agencies.
The figures for the first half of 2024 include the US $75 million reportedly paid to the Dark Angels ransomware gang by an undisclosed Fortune 50 company, in what was believed to be the largest ever single ransom payment made since records began.
The ballooning size of maximum ransom payments represents a 96% year-on-year growth from 2023, and a 335% increase from the maximum payment made in 2022.
Chainalysis's research reveals that the median ransom payment made in response to the most severe ransomware has rocketed from just under US $200,000 in early 2023 to US $1.5 million by mid-June 2024.
The researchers believe that this 7.9x increase in the typical size of ransom payment (a nearly 1200x rise since the start of 2021) suggests that larger businesses and critical infrastructure providers considered more likely to agree to make higher payments due to their greater access to funds and the more significant impact of downtime.
Against this backdrop, the study claims that ransomware victims are giving in to extortion demands less often. As it explains:
Posts to ransomware leak sites as a measure of ransomware incidents have increased YoY by 10%, something we would expect to see if more victims were being compromised. However, total ransomware payment events as measured on-chain have declined YoY by 27.29%. Reading these two trends in tandem suggests that while attacks might be up so far this year, payment rates are down YoY. This is a positive sign for the ecosystem signalling that perhaps victims are better prepared, negating the need to pay.
In short, ensuring that your organisation had prepared to respond to a ransomware attack is essential.
Many organisations underestimate the importance of having a robust incident response plan. But knowing how to respond, especially in those critical first 48 hours after a cyber attack, can be critical.
Do you worry your company won't know how to recover after a cyber attack? Has your business just been hit by ransomware and you're wondering what to do?
There's still hope.
Don't make the mistake of believing that your organisation will never be targeted. The right approach is to take proactive measures in advance - as it's not a case of whether your business will suffer the likes of a ransomware attack but when.
Make sure to read Exponential-e's step-by-step guide on ransomware remediation.
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