NetCat Wales have been involved in the E-Crime Wales initiative since its
inception, and took part in the recent 2006 E-Crime Summit in Llangollen.
by Sali Earls
NetCat Wales is a company of IT security experts based in North Wales. With experience gained from providing IT services for major organisations within a variety of sectors, the founders of the company have combined IT industry experience that span over 50 years.
IT is now part of day to day life for most businesses, and with security being an ever more important consideration, NetCat work with customers to apply security procedures and tools to their businesses to enable as well as protect business processes.
NetCat Wales have been involved in the E-Crime Wales initiative since its
inception, and took part in the recent 2006 E-Crime Summit in Llangollen.
Sali Earls spoke to Managing Director Andy Whitaker to find out more about the company.
What's the history of your company?
NetCat Wales was formed to provide information security related services to small and medium sized businesses, based in Hawarden, Flintshire. This was a market segment that has been typically
overlooked and considering that the majority of businesses in Wales employ fewer than 50 people.
NetCat Wales provide a range of security services all in support of improving our customers Information Security, including firewall solutions, antivirus, antispam, URL Filtering, Desktop / Server security, penetration testing and, network/system design.
Our services are tailored to suit customer requirements, a company of 800 people have somewhat different requirements to a sole trader, and we wish to cater for all sizes.
While we have kept true to this vision and have developed services to support this, we have attracted the attention of other IT Security companies who wish to partner with us. To service this, we have developed a team of highly specialised consultants who now work all over the UK and not just in Wales.
What unique products/services does your company provide?
NetCat Wales have designed a number of services and solutions that provide high security for small to medium size organisations that do not have in house expertise.
For example, a managed Firewall service that is aggressively priced to allow even small - and we mean very small - businesses to afford it.
This provides peace of mind to the customer as the firewall -a device that protects PC's and networks from hackers- is constantly monitored by our security management centre and constantly kept up to date against threats that emerge on a daily basis, we also provide URL filtering options, stopping the download or viewing of objectionable material from internet sites, anti virus, anti spam and email virus scanning solutions .
As far as I know we are the only company to offer this type of service at this price range.
NetCat Wales are proud to be the only accredited Solutions Architects for SecureWave's Sanctuary products. We provide the technical expertise to ensure the products work correctly and help to protect the customer's information assets. The sanctuary products stop people from running unauthorised programs or from connecting unauthorised devices to protected PCs. The growth in USB pen drives for example has presented enormous security problems to companies. People have the potential to walk out with the entire company information stored on a small device that fits into a pocket or handbag.
What's been the key to your success?
We have been successful in the three main areas we have focussed on and while there are specific reasons for our success in each area, the one key fact that unites them is our ability to adapt. The
success has come from listening to customers and partner companies. Customer feedback is essential and we treasure it. It provides us with the measure to see if the service is working and meeting
with the customer needs. We treat our customers as partners, which allows us to develop and adapt services that are right for them.
What one piece of outside technology has benefited your company most?
This is a difficult one to answer as we are very dependant on technology. Clearly the SecureWave Sanctuary products have been very beneficial. They are the best in class product and we have
been able to build a service around their deployment and use.
However, we need an office infrastructure that supports remote working as our customers are distributed all over the UK. Our customer assignments can be as long as six months so we need to be able to support our consultants with the normal office services where ever they may be. To do this we use the same Firewall/VPN technology that we utilise as part of our managed firewall service. This is based on the Checkpoint Safe@Office firewalls and remote access software. We need water tight security given the nature of our work and this provides it.
What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
I think it's essential to remain focussed on your prime objectives. But, there's always a but, be ready to adapt to changes. Nothing is static in the field of information security. Hackers find new ways to
get at your data and you have to devise new ways to stop them. New technologies or new ways of doing things have to be taken on-board and the opportunities or risks that they present accounted
for.
One last thing which everyone should remember; customers are your biggest asset. Protect them and look after them. Without customers you won't have anything!
Where do you see your company going in the future?
We at NetCat Wales have worked hard to ensure that the growth of the company is sustainable and that as one area grows it does not impact on other areas of our operations. This is an approach
we will continue to stick with as we grow and we do expect to grow.
Looking at the current opportunities we are involved with, there is every indication that we will be working more and more in the far reaches of the UK (Scotland and Northern Ireland) in addition to the usual locations in England. This will enable us to expand and open up regional offices. However, the head office will always be in Wales - it's the best place to be!
Find out more about NetCat Wales at www.netcat-wales.com.
Send a comment about this article to editor@itwales.com.
© Copyright ITWales 2006