Protecting the UK’s Critical Infrastructure
It may not be so obvious at times like this, but there are tens of thousands of key workers essential to ensuring the NHS keeps running and continues to save lives at this critical time. These people work in the UK’s Critical Infrastructure, businesses that most of us take for granted but rely on completely.
Every generation and age group has become reliant on communications but many of us don’t realise just how integral they are to our everyday lives, and how interlinked critical infrastructure services are. Without water we as humans can’t survive beyond 3 days, for us all to receive clean water we need energy, without energy we have no communications and without communications we can’t control equipment or request assistance.
It’s wonderful the way the country and businesses are coming together to build the Nightingale Hospitals. They are in locations that don’t have the essential services readily available to run a hospital with a potential bed capacity of over 4000 patients plus staff, such as a reliable clean water supply, uninterrupted power and heating, essential internet and phone communications. The engineers who are installing, maintaining and operating these services are also the heroes - and don’t forget the supply chain.
The security of these critical services could be considered even more important at these times. Infrastructure is possibly at its most vulnerable when there are fewer people available and conspiracy theorists on social media circulate ‘fake news’ that the new 5G infrastructure spreads disease. It certainly highlights the risk infrastructure carries, and the impact it would have on our lives if we found ourselves without water, energy or internet to make skype calls or entertain our families streaming films.
Right now, it’s important for all companies working on the security of critical infrastructure to be providing a trusted and reliable service that goes beyond simply supplying products, they need to be relied upon to understand the need of the nation during these unprecedented times.
Access control and remote security solutions are more important than ever in helping to keep our infrastructure secure, and when an engineer arrives to make repairs or adjustments to a piece of critical equipment, they need to be able to depend on it to work. At ABLOY we continue to work hard to keep our reliant solutions working, enabling stretched business to operate efficiently during these unprecedented times.
Now, more than ever, we want you to know that we’re here to not only to support you but also help you plan for the future, after lockdown. Although we have implemented a temporary closure of operations to ensure employee safety, we continue to offer the expertise of our world-leading technical experts during this difficult time and our specialist advisers are on hand to answer questions and provide guidance to anyone looking to ensure their organisation’s systems remain fit for purpose.
They can also provide solutions to security weaknesses highlighted by recent events and how they can be made more resilient for the future. If you would like to get in touch for more information, please call Steve Wintle on 07766 071940 or email: [email protected].