What are CESG CLAS Consultants?
Hytec Information Security Ltd

CESG is the Information Assurance (IA) arm of GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, and is the UK Government’s National Technical Authority for IA, responsible for enabling secure and trusted knowledge sharing.

CESG believe there are five key principles, essential for safe electronic transactions:

• Confidentiality – keeping information private
• Integrity – ensuring information has not been tampered with
• Authentication – confirming the identity of the individual who undertook the transaction
• Non-repudiation – the individual who undertook the transaction cannot subsequently deny it
• Availability – ensuring information is available when required

CLAS is CESG’s Listed Adviser Scheme - a partnership linking the unique Information Assurance knowledge of CESG with the expertise and resources of the private sector.

Hytec is one of only a few UK organisations employing CLAS accredited consultants.

CESG recognises that there is an increasing demand for authoritative information security advice and guidance. This demand has come as a result of an increasing awareness of the threats and vulnerabilities that information systems are likely to face in an ever-changing world. In addition specific demand will come from:

• Departments seeking to bring their networks into line with the Government Secure Intranet (GSI) requirements.
• Departments addressing emerging security requirements associated with the e-Government (Information Age Government) initiative.
• The need to safeguard the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
• The Cabinet Office requirement for departments to implement the British Standard for Information Security Management: BS7799.
• Making 'government standard' Information Assurance advice more readily available to the broader public sector (local government, the Health sector, Police Forces etc).

CESG's CLAS scheme aims to satisfy this demand by creating a pool of high quality consultants approved by CESG to provide Information Assurance advice to government departments and other organisations who provide vital services for the United Kingdom.

Hytec employs a team of CLAS-accredited consultants whose role is assist public sector organisations develop their information security capability through services such as:

• e-Gif Compliance Audit
• BS7799 Compliance Review
• Security Policies Development
• NHSnet Connection Audit
• NHSnet Connection Design

Acknowledgement - Parts of this article have been extracted from the CESG website.