Thales UK Ltd

High Assurance Remote Access

Trusted by HMG, Cabinet Office, and MOD, Thales High Assurance RAS enables access to critical & sensitive systems on both closed user networks (GSI, PSN, LECN and RLI) and enterprise networks over the bearer of opportunity including the public internet. Enables access to Police applications such as PND and LEDS.

Features

• Secure scalable Thales UK cloud hosted platform accredited to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE
• High Assurance remote access RAS to GSI, PSN, LECN, RLI
• Flexible access to Web Applications using on demand always-on VPN
• Complete secure turnkey solution for managing PSN endpoints at Official-Sensitive
• BOYD or Fully Managed with compliance checking (AV, Patching)
• Secure by Design principle based architecture and security
• Enables access to Police applications such as PND and LEDS.
• Deployed using either cloud-to-cloud, public internet, or traditional MPLS WAN
• NCSC Cloud security principles in fully managed scalable
• Uses IPS, IDS, WAF, Malware protection for Deep Packet inspection

Benefits

• Removes the reliance on fixed location access to secure networks
• Access to secure networks e.g. GSI, PSN, PND, LECN, RLI
• Improves operational efficiencies providing convenient secure network access from anywhere
• Secures your user devices with innovative end point posture assessments
• Complete secure managed solution set-up and in service quickly
• Fully-managed secure official-sensitive service NCSC Cloud Security Principles
• Secure PSN Code of service/code of connection accredited gateway provider
• Provides a scalable, cost effective and flexible solution
• Enables flexible working

£650 a unit a day

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at fcmo@uk.thalesgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

177949705515250

Contact

Phaedra Warnes
07974 011385
fcmo@uk.thalesgroup.com

Service scope

• Service constraints: The buyer of this service must hold an existing Code of Connection for the Government network or policing application before being on-boarded.
• System requirements: Internet access >2mbps, can be provided by user or supplier

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Our Service Desk and Incident Management team are ; - available 24x7x365 ; - accredited to ISO27001 and ISO20000 for Service Management; - all SC and NPPV3 cleared; ; Response is based on SLAs and service requirements agreed with the client.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Support is provided in line with customer specific SLAs Service Delivery Managers are assigned to each client. ; ; Support is available via phone, e-mail or face-to-face meetings when required. Typically, the contract of work shall specify the required frequency of meetings, and further arrangements can be made as appropriate. We work closely with our customers to ensure that they have the support they require throughout the project; the basis of the support will depend on the specific needs of the project, the services procured, and the customer.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Thales provides full documentation to users and customers which covers both how to both access and use the service and how to access support for the service. ; User names, passwords and account details are provided to the users using secure methods in line with best security practice. ; Enhanced Early Life Support and remote training can also be offered when users start to use the Thales service. ; Points of escalation within Thales and also provided to customers as well as an assigned Service Delivery Manager.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: We will provide an extract of the data held by Thales to the customer in an agreed format.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract the data is provided to the customer in an agreed format (CSV or xml) and then deleted from Thales systems.; For an additional fee, Thales can return the data in alternative formats or retain the data for an extended period if required.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: No
• API: No
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type: Automatic
• Independence of resources: Infrastructure is monitored 24x7 for availability and capacity, in line with ISO27001 and ISO20000.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting: Email

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: Other
• Other metrics:
  • Availability metrics and SLA compliance
  • Bandwidth utilisation
  • AV and anti-malware reports
  • Usage reports
  • Unused account reports
• Reporting types: Regular reports

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Supplier-defined controls
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: ‘IT Health Check’ performed by a CHECK service provider
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
  • Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v.30, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: No

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: Encrypted traffic and Authenticated users
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: Access restrictions

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: SLAs for availability are agreed with the customer dependant on needs and services procured.; The Thales Secure RAS for PND is delivered as a geo-graphically diverse high availability service designed to exceed 99.95% availability.
• Approach to resilience: Due to its sensitivity, this information is available on request.
• Outage reporting: Thales provides 24x7 monitoring at UK Network Monitoring Centre.; In the event of an outage, a Service Delivery Manager will inform customers, and a Major Incident Manager will be appointed. Outages will also be reported in the Service Delivery Management report.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access to management interfaces is restricted to appropriately security cleared and authorised Thales staff members. Network segmentation is in place to secure management interfaces, located within secure processing facilities. These configurations are subject to CHECK ITHC. Management interfaces are not exposed to the internet. All event logs are sent to the Thales SOC for protective monitoring and retained for 12 months. Thales systems are also subject to internal and external audit.; Support – No 3rd parties are provided with remote access to the Thales SOC network. Only trusted suppliers are used, with contractual and NDA clauses used to protect information.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Limited access network (for example PSN)
• Devices users manage the service through: Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: LRQA
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 22 November 2023
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The Thales UK Information Security Management System (ISMS) incorporates the people, processes and technologies supporting the portfolio of network services.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • PSNSP certifications up to OFFICIAL SENSITIVE
  • Police Enhanced Regime
  • ISO20000 Accreditation
  • PASF
  • List-X

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards:
  • ISO/IEC 27001
  • Other
• Other security governance standards: ISO 20000; PSN services at OFFICIAL; Police Enhanced Regime ; Cyber Essentials Plus; NCSC CCSC (Certified Cyber Security Consultancy); NCSC CCP (Certified Cyber Professional); Sector specific accreditation ; List X; PASF; ISO 9001
• Information security policies and processes: The Thales Secure RAS service is certified to a number of different standards, including ISO 27001:2013. This is based on an ISMS (Information Security Management System) which consists of Thales UK policy, process and procedures in addition to ISO 27001 clauses. The ISMS is audited by independent 3rd parties annually. An annual IA (Information Assurance) schedule ensures that policies are implemented, assessed and effective. This includes internal audits, external audits, Security Working Groups, Security Awareness campaigns. The reporting structure is defined in the Thales IA Management Plan, along with incident management processes and RACI matrix. The Thales Secure RAS service assurance is also achieved through additional certifications and accreditations, which include audit reports being submitted to the Cabinet Office, NCSC and PDS.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Configuration and change management approach: All Requests for Change (RFC)’s are presented to a Thales’ Change Board (CAB). The CAB is attended by Business, Technical, Service Delivery and Information Assurance stakeholders along with the owner of the RFC’s. On receipt of a request to make changes to the service; an RFC will be generated and submitted to CAB prior to delivery. Changes will be notified to customer CABs where there is a change to the device(s) which may impact service.
• Vulnerability management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: As part of the Thales compliance requirements, Thales has a requirement to be able to adequately respond to Low to Critical level patches and vulnerabilities.; ; The Thales SOC utilise an IBM vulnerability management module to prioritise vulnerabilities. The SOC also utilise various threat intelligence and vulnerability feeds to stay informed of the latest vulnerabilities. The SOC then advise on recommended activity and mitigations. ; ; Thales Change Management is then used to apply patches in a managed and timely manner – to prevent disruption to customer services.
• Protective monitoring type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v3.0 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: The Thales SOC provides protective monitoring and threat intelligence to identify potential compromises, cyber-attacks and non-compliance.; The SOC follow processes and escalation paths in response to potential compromises and security incidents. A severity matrix is used to assign a priority to each incident. The priority determines the response for the incident. Agreed stakeholders and contacts are contacted depending on the severity.; Incidents are responded to within SLA – in accordance with the assigned priority.
• Incident management type: Conforms to a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v3.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Incident management approach: Thales operates a 24 hour a day 365 days a year UK Network Operations Centre which utilises a monitoring platform and trouble ticketing platform for Incident and Problem Management. The Service desk is accredited to ISO 20000, ISO27001 and all processes are aligned to ITIL. ; Thales adopts a tiered approach to incident management. Tier 1 has the technical knowledge to triage all incidents, and will categorise and prioritise in line with agreed Customer priorities. The team is skilled to offer technical and product knowledge to resolve incidents, respond and deploy remote teams or involve third parties if required.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Independent review of processes (for example CESG CPA Build Standard, ISO/IEC 27034, ISO/IEC 27001 or CSA CCM v3.0)

Separation between users

• Virtualisation technology used to keep applications and users sharing the same infrastructure apart: Yes
• Who implements virtualisation: Supplier
• Virtualisation technologies used: VMware
• How shared infrastructure is kept separate: The environment has been built in line with NCSC security procedures and managed through appropriate policies. It is also subject to annual ITHC in line with maintaining GDS-A accreditation for operation.; Segregation of traffic is achieved using secure tunnels and vlans.; Separate appliances where required

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Thales UK has a clear focus on fighting climate change. Thales has set itself a target of becoming a Carbon Net Zero company by 2030, powered by cleaner energy used more efficiently at our sites and for our business, with renewable energy supplies. ; ; There are several strategies that Thales and our Cyber offerings implement to fight climate change, including:; 1) Sustainable future. Thales has put fighting climate change at the centre of its strategy, highlighted by the fact that tackling climate change is one of the 4 Thales strategic pillars. Thales Cyber security and consultancy offerings have enabled companies to develop secure and sustainable products, prevent product recalls, learn digital lessons and reduce rework that go towards meeting their strategic sustainability objectives and tackle climate change.; 2) Travel reduction. Thales has introduced a Smart Working model to reduce the travelling required by the workforce. One pillar of this is arranging virtual meetings with Customers, Stakeholders and interested parties. Thales has also deployed numerous tools to enable Thales UK to effectively operate via remote / smart working. It is expected that meetings under G-Cloud could implement this methodology to offer the same benefits to the customer. Our Cyber Security Consultants, including those specialising in Cyber Security Management have championed this approach for several years, reducing the need for Thales and customers to travel to physical meetings.; 3) Carbon reduction. Thales strives to implement carbon reduction, through a series of targets to reduce carbon emissions annually. Smart working, championed by our Cyber Security Consultants and offerings has been a key enabler of this strategy. Additionally, services enabling secure collaboration mean that businesses do not need to procure additional new hardware, thereby having a positive environmental impact.

  Tackling economic inequality

  For the theme of “Tackling Economic Inequality” Thales’s methodology centres on a number of Sub themes these included: Levelling up, Increasing productivity and Education & Training.; Levelling up - Geographical Challenges; ; Thales is committed to the UK prosperity as a whole and drives economic activity in all parts of the country. In 2020, Thales supported over 25,400 jobs in the economy, driving growth in all four nations of the UK.; Thales works with local government and institutions to provide opportunities for local people and to support redevelopment of deprived parts of the UK. A recent example includes:; Investing in Wales - In partnership with Blaenau Gwent Council, the Welsh Assembly and the University of South Wales, Thales established a £20m National Digital Exploitation Centre in EbbwVale. It’s generating new jobs in high-demand and high-skill areas for a region that has suffered from economic inequality. ; Education and Training; ; Thales is committed to the professional development of the contract workforce and provides access to learning opportunities to ensure employees have knowledge and skills to keep up with the pace of technological change. ; Thales has an established early careers programme that attracts both apprentices and graduates (A&G) from a diverse background. In 2023 we hired 154 A&G colleagues, with a 2025 objective of at least 10% of all new hires to be graduates/apprentices.; Where appropriate due to Security Aspects, Thales will enable A&Gs to work alongside projects teams to learn ‘on the job’ and gain valuable insights beyond academic lessons. ; School STEM Workshops. Careers Fairs & Volunteering; ; Thales has an established partnership with the Smallpeice Trust to deliver STEM and careers workshops to members of underrepresented groups in schools/colleges serving disadvantaged communities. ; ; All employees benefit from 24 hours yearly allowance for volunteering.

  Wellbeing

  Thales considers the health and wellbeing of our people to be fundamental to our success as a business. We have a well-established health and wellbeing (H&W) support provision, which has enabled us to rapidly provide critical support to our employees where and when it is needed most. ; In 2017, Thales signed the Time to Change pledge, publically stating our commitment to changing the way we think and talk about mental health in the workplace. We have trained 200+ of our people in Mental Health First Aid, a network of supporters who can recognise the early signs of mental ill health, listen whilst assessing for crisis, and provide information. ; Help @ Hand; Thales provides every employee & their families access to an Employee Assistance Programme - A 24/7 helpline for in the moment emotional and practical support, or signposting onward resources, such as healthcare or local assistance. ; In 2021 Thales developed a ways of working model to support and equip teams, individuals & people managers with resources and frameworks to promote our hybrid ways of working following the pandemic, the framework will promote a culture of wellbeing and psychological safety for teams to work effectively within the new working culture.; Sustained & continued support; Thales also has a dedicated Employee Relations team to provide specific and tailored interventions. Thales will work alongside Occupational Health, H&W providers and rehab services to establish adjustments and tailored programmes to enable employees to return to work in the manner that is safest for them.; Thales will track and monitor working patterns to ensure that all hours worked are booked in the ERP Systems to actively monitor loading on individuals so that individuals maintain a healthy work/life balance. Any significant deviations from the norm will be raised in sprint planning reviews to inform resource balancing actions.

Pricing

• Price: £650 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at fcmo@uk.thalesgroup.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.