Somerford Associates Limited

mnemonic - Managed Detection and Response

Argus MDR provides 24x7 managed protection against cyberattacks and security threats. With complete enterprise coverage, including cloud, data centre, network and endpoint, our expert team of security analysts, incident responders and threat researchers will act as an extension of your security team to help you defend against today’s complex cyberattacks.

Features

• 24x7 security monitoring
• Event analysis
• Incident alerting
• Stream analysis
• Global Threat Intelligence
• Flexible, Customizable and Scalable service
• Advanced threat detection and hunting
• Incident Response
• Real Time Reporting
• Customisable Dashboard

Benefits

• Dedicated Technical Account Manager
• Regular service meetings for incident review, service improvement and recommendations
• Actionable response recommendations
• Access to over 20+ years of security competency and consultancy
• Quickly React to Incidents anytime
• Gain Insight into your attack landscape and security posture
• Customise the service to best suit your teams needs

£3 to £50 a user a month

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 penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

848273124792079

Contact

Penny Harrison
07897075103
penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com

Service scope

• Service constraints: N/A
• System requirements: N/A

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Analysts are available 24/7
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 24 hours, 7 days a week
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: All customers receive the same support level. At the start of each project, the customer is assigned a Technical Account Manager (TAM) from mnemonic whose responsibility is to coordinate and attend regular service meetings. The TAM serves as a trusted adviser to the customer to make recommendations on how to improve the service and security in general. This is all included in the service cost.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Argus MDR Service is implemented using mnemonic’s project management framework. Our framework is based on core principles from PMI and Prince2, and has been customised over the years based on our experience in successfully implementing our services. The framework ensures that our implementation projects meet the agreed expectations, are of a high quality and are delivered on time. ; ; The service implementation project encompasses technical components, such as physical installation and device configuration, along with information gathering activities focused on customer business operations, service deliverables and escalation procedures. The implementation service is a mandatory component of the Argus MDR Service initialisation. The implementation project has various components that may be delivered on-site, while other deliverables can be performed remotely. ; ; An example of project tasks and deliverables includes:  ; ; - Arrange start up meeting for the service with relevant Customer personnel and mnemonic personnel, as an introduction to the service  - Service design: high and low-level designs  ; - Planning technical and procedural integration of service, including establish customer- and solution-specific management routines and documentation for the operations centre  ; - Classification and documentation of assets and services  ; - Establish secure communication lines between the mnemonic and the customer
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: At the end of every contract the customer is assigned a dedicated project team in order to ensure the smooth handover and decommissioning of the service. This project will include the decommissioning of devices, support in ensuring their return and handover of any requested data or logs. ; Mnemonic is able to assist in the handover to a new provider where reasonable.
• End-of-contract process: Mnemonic would run an offboarding project which includes data handover, decommissioning instructions and a handover meeting. Additional activities will be evaluated and may be priced depending on time and material.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Using the web interface: All customers have access to the Argus customer portal which is available through a web interface, or the Argus mobile application. Through this portal customers can assign an unlimited amount of users with the necessary privileges to make changes. User led changes include changes to dashboards, privileges, reporting settings and certain changes to incidents. Further more complex changes can be completed by the Security Operations Centre that can be informed via the web interface.
• Web interface accessibility standard: None or don’t know
• How the web interface is accessible: N/A
• Web interface accessibility testing: None
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: https://docs.mnemonic.no/display/public/API/mnemonic+API+documentation
• API automation tools:
  • Ansible
  • Chef
  • OpenStack
  • SaltStack
  • Terraform
  • Puppet
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • Open API (also known as Swagger)
  • HTML
• Command line interface: No

Scaling

• Scaling available: Yes
• Scaling type: Automatic
• Independence of resources: We perform extensive capacity planning and constant monitoring of resources according to demand. We have the ability to quickly scale up if needed.
• Usage notifications: Yes
• Usage reporting:
  • Email
  • Other

Analytics

• Infrastructure or application metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: Mnemonic

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: European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest: Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Hardware containing data is completely destroyed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Backup and recovery

• Backup and recovery: Yes
• What’s backed up: All data relevant for the managed service delivery
• Backup controls: Users do not control that as it is part of the managed service delivery.
• Datacentre setup: Multiple datacentres with disaster recovery
• Scheduling backups: Supplier controls the whole backup schedule
• Backup recovery: Users contact the support team

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Other
• Other protection within supplier network: SSH

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: The Service Provider delivers a high-quality service that is built upon high availability capabilities. This includes high availability of the Argus Customer Portal and high availability for communications between the Service Provider’s central service components and the End Customer. ; ; The Service is guaranteed to be available with a 99.9% availability rate. The availability rate is measured over the period of one calendar month and excludes scheduled maintenance windows. An availability breach occurs if the Service is available for less than 99.9% in a given month. ; ; In such cases, the End Customer will be entitled to Service Credits in accordance with the following table: ; ; 100% - 99.9% availability - Service Credit - 0 ; 99,9% - 99 % availability - Service Credit - 3 ; 99 % - 98,5 % availability - Service Credit - 6 ; 98.5 % - 98 % availability - Service Credit - 15 ; ; Service Credits are awarded in the event that the Service Provider breaches specific service levels within the agreement. The value of a Service Credit is 1/30th of the monthly cost for the SLA that was in breach and is automatically redeemed on the next service invoice.
• Approach to resilience: Available upon request
• Outage reporting: Outages are reported through the customer portal which is also available through APIs and email alerts

Identity and authentication

• User authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Privileged access on a company level (e.g. domain admin) can only be given to authorized personnel. This is enforced by requirement of role and department, training in the system (e.g. from Microsoft if for Active Directory), and one-on-one briefing with manager to verify integrity, veracity, and trust. Management interfaces are only accessible through an internal secure network which is not connected to the internet.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password
• Devices users manage the service through:
  • Dedicated device on a segregated network (providers own provision)
  • Any device but through a bastion host (a bastion host is a server that provides access to a private network from an external network such as the internet)

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: You control when users can access audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: DNV GL - Business Assurance
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 31/05/2005
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: The certificate is valid for the following scope: Security solutions sales, support and system integration. Security solutions consulting. Managed security services. Risk-based vulnerability analysis, penetration testing, security audit of applications, networks and security systems. In accordance with Statement of Applicability version 128, 2019-03-18
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: Yes
• Who accredited the PCI DSS certification: SRC - Security Research and Consulting, GmbH
• PCI DSS accreditation date: June 2018
• What the PCI DSS doesn’t cover: N/A
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: Yes
• Any other security certifications:
  • ISO 9001:2015
  • NSM quality scheme for incident handling
  • SOC 2 - SOC for Service Organizations

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Mnemonic’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is responsible for information security in mnemonic, including promoting security throughout the organization. In mnemonic we have integrated our security and quality management system. ; ; The ISMS (Information Security Management System) is governed by our CISO and the ISMS-forum. The ISMS-forum consists of 10 people with relevant roles and responsibilities in mnemonic to govern all core business processes. To ensure efficiency of the ISMS, we have implemented an information risk framework that clearly identifies consequence, likelihood, roles, responsibilities, remediation and risk acceptance criteria. ; ; The framework relates to all information processed and has been revised to ensure appropriate evaluation of privacy risk aligned with our DPIA process. To ensure that every employee understands their responsibilities to follow the requirements set in the ISMS we have implemented several policies. ; ; Some examples of policies implemented: ; • Information security ; • Privacy ; • Secure development (Including Privacy by Design/Default) ; • Change management ; • Disaster recovery and Incident handling ; • Acceptable use ; ; To ensure that every employee understands their responsibilities to follow the requirements set in the ISMS we have implemented several policies.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: Change management is carried out in co-operation with the customer. All change management is logged and recorded via the Argus platform. Security is at the core of the offering so all changes are assessed based on the impact it has on the security of the service.; ; In general, the Services have no hard limit on the number of changes within a given period. However, should the Service Provider find the number of changes to be unreasonably high, the Service Provider, together with the Customer, will investigate the cause(s) and request the Customer to take corrective action.
• Vulnerability management type: Undisclosed
• Vulnerability management approach: Mnemonic’s entire infrastructure, both for service delivery and users, is monitored 24x7 by our Argus Managed Defence service – meaning all internal security incidents are escalated directly to our SOC and assessed by security analysts 24x7. ; ; mnemonic subject all networks to continuous authenticated vulnerability monitoring. If severe vulnerabilities are discovered, mnemonic will initiate specified scans to identify if the vulnerabilities occur in our systems. ; ; The results from these internal and external scanning activities are reported in Argus and monitored by our internal infrastructure team.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We have established a strict regime for control, protection and monitoring of our systems against malicious content. This is part of our core services and we are a customer of ourselves, including our 24/7 Security Monitoring and our Incident Response services.; ; We proactively use threat hunting to identify potential incidents in both mnemonic's, and our customers, environments. If an incident is identified we have a 24/7 incident response team who can respond immediately.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: The incident management process is described in our Quality Management system based on the ISO 27001 framework. Detection and reporting is based on the same service we provide to our customers, including playbooks and report templates for common events and incidents.

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: Customers are segmented individually and customer sites can only be reached from a secure zone segmented from our internal and other zones. Data is segmented throughout our Argus platform from time of ingestion.

Energy efficiency

• Energy-efficient datacentres: Yes
• Description of energy efficient datacentres: Concurrently maintainable data center, EN 50600 Class 3, conform to Class 4 - EU Data Centre Code of Conduct

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  As an organisation that works closely with the public sector, Somerford is keen to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the achievement of the Net Zero target of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.; ; Management and staff at Somerford have been conscious of our impact upon the environment even before the Climate Change Act was introduced, and we’ve adopted environmentally friendly practices as the business has grown. Consequently, Somerford ‘s business already has a reasonably low carbon footprint, and will continue to strive for further reductions wherever possible because this is beneficial for our business, our stakeholders and the environment.; ; We will use our influence as a value added reseller of leading edge software products and supporting professional services to select supplier-partners whose own carbon reduction philosophy and plans are aligned with ours, and who can show commitment to the Net Zero target. In practical terms, this means we participate in a carbon-net-zero supply chain in the delivery of the solutions from our supplier-partners to our customers.; ; For further details, please see our Carbon Reduction Plan online at https://www.somerfordassociates.com/carbon-reduction-policy-and-plan/
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  During the Covid-19 pandemic, our robust business continuity measures, prudent fiscal policy, and the benefits of a highly flexible team, meant we were well prepared for the difficulties ahead. ; ; Staff wellbeing has been at the forefront of our Covid-19 recovery plans, taking care of their physical and mental health, including;; ; * home working to avoid unnecessary exposure to the virus; * providing safe office space where staff personal circumstances dictated; * regular contact, albeit remotely, to prevent isolation; * organised e-based social events to maintain interaction; ; ; As a result we have been able to:; ; * give uninterrupted service to our customers; * move our staff to home working; * avoid compulsory redundancies and minimised furlough; * in 2020, gain an 11% increase in revenues; * continue to grow the workforce by over 10% in the same year; * take on new partners to enhance our solutions portfolio; * invest in staff education to meet future customer needs. ; ; Changes in business practices due to Covid-19 have shown that flexible work patterns can be very effective, and we’re unlikely to fully return to our previous style of working. ; ; Our solutions have also helped customers to cope with their changing work patterns too - supporting their Covid recovery by providing the infrastructure, tooling and monitoring to support their own remote, flexible and sustainable ways of working.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  Somerford is a healthily growing business, and actively strives to create employment opportunities that are inclusive of all socio-economic groups. For example:; ; * In the past 5 years, 20% of our staff entered our employment from leaving school, college or university;; * We have supported 12 apprenticeships;; * We run an internal academy scheme to build a broad range of technical skills in those who have the inherent skills, attitude and capability to become our next generation of experts;; * We actively participate in the Armed Forces Covenant Scheme and help to redeploy and reskill leavers from the Armed Forces. So far, 16 staff have joined us in this way;; * The ethnic mix of our staff is more diverse than that of our local community.; ; Strong technical skills are key to the delivery of services to our customers, so we’ve invested heavily in staff training - in 2020 alone, staff successfully completed over 100 technical courses.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Somerford is an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief or age.; ; We do not discriminate on the grounds of disability. We take particular care to respect the rights of those with disabilities, throughout all stages of recruitment and employment. We make reasonable adjustments to ensure those with disabilities are not disadvantaged in the workplace, eg. adjusting working hours or providing special equipment to help to do their job.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  Somerford is committed to promoting and supporting the wellbeing of all of its staff. We aim to create a culture which focuses on prevention of issues in the workplace that can adversely affect staff health and wellbeing, and where issues are identified, they are managed promptly before they can have a detrimental impact.; ; This includes:; * providing staff with clarity and purpose regarding their job role;; * ensuring staff have the capability, training, support and encouragement to conduct their role confidently and effectively;; * providing a physical working environment that is suitable for the work to be carried out effectively;; * encouraging staff to maintain a sensible work-life balance;; * minimising the stressful impacts of work;; * ensuring bullying and harassment have no place in the working environment;; * managing sickness and absence effectively;; * considering requests for career breaks and sabbaticals;; * providing medical assistance to staff;; * encouraging employee fitness;; * promoting dignity at work.

Pricing

• Price: £3 to £50 a user a month
• 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 penny.harrison@somerfordassociates.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.