Market Research Participant Recruitment Agency
This is the (abridged!) story of the journey to Cyber Essentials certification and how Saros Research achieved certification. Cyber Essentials is a UK government information assurance scheme operated by the National Cyber Security Centre that encourages organisations to adopt good practice in information security (Wiki). It’s open to all businesses and is a mark of assurance that is becoming widely known. Many global businesses for whom data forms the cornerstone of their business, include such certifications as part of the qualifying requirements to work with them. This trend is likely to continue and become the norm for the market research and most other industries where data is involved.
First, some background on why we wanted to become certified. We have a UK-wide enthusiastic and growing database of members. These members regularly share their data when applying to take part in the many market research projects for which we recruit. Saros is one of the market leaders in recruiting online quality qualitative market research participants (not easy to say) and, we wanted to clearly show our commitment to the protection of all the personal data with which we are entrusted.
Our initial step prior to GDPR coming into force was to appoint a Data Protection Officer to check that the organisation continues to move in the right direction. We took our lead from the guidance of the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Market Research Society.
The consensus as to how we could evidence our commitment towards the ethical use and protection of personal data, was to attain recognised certification and/or accreditation. We narrowed it down to two recognised standards to best match Saros’s business model; Cyber Essentials certification for our security arrangements and the MRS Fair Data accreditation for both security and organisational measures. We achieved the first on the 19th December 2019 and are currently working towards the second.
Our journey towards GDPR compliance began some time ago. Everything had to be in place; all the policies and understanding of them to cover all relevant aspects of our business. This process had to include reviewing and quantifying our security needs in relation to our data handling. The act of stepping back and really looking has caused us to make some changes and has definitely improved our operations.
But we needed an expert technical assessment and proof of the security of our remote team and cloud-based infrastructure to begin the process. It took time to decide on the cyber security professionals we finally chose, but it has proved to be time well spent.
Going forward, we have a range of measures, including monthly scans to make sure we maintain our standards and continue to remain secure. In the event of anything unexpected or untoward, we can act immediately with the benefit of high-quality cyber security expertise support.
For Saros, the real value of having achieved Cyber Essentials certification is a combination of internal confidence and external business validation. We look forward to achieving MRS Fair Data accreditation to further demonstrate our team’s commitment.
