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Cyber Essentials, helping you guard your organisation against cyber attack

With the recent rise of Colleges and Universities self-certifying for Cyber Essentials, Rob Xenos, Development Manager for Clevertouch Technologies, explains how we
can assist your compliance with Cyber Essentials
Certification for Clevertouch Interactive Displays.

What is Cyber Essentials?

Cyber Essentials is an effective, Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They’re the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it’s unlocked. Cyber Essentials certification is designed to prevent these attacks.

Are all operating systems and firmware on your devices supported by a vendor that produces regular security updates?

Older operating systems that are out of regular support include Windows XP/Vista/Server 2003, mac OS Mojave, iOS 12, iOS 13, Android 8, and Ubuntu Linux 17.10. This requirement includes the firmware on your Firewalls and Routers. It is important you keep track of your operating systems and understand when they have gone end of life (EOL). Most major vendors will have published EOL dates for their operating systems and firmware.

What does this mean for my Clevertouch with Android 8 or lower Operating System?

Although out of regular support Android 7.1 and 8 Firmware builds from Clevertouch are based on the Android AOSP platform and are locked down with many of the security vulnerabilities removed. We always make sure that we deploy the latest security patches available in our builds. If you are concerned about having Android 7.1 or 8.0 Devices connected to your network, it is recommended that you place these devices within on a separate network that shares no connectivity with your main networks. Clevertouch can provide you with a full Network Security Document that outlines ports, and IP addresses that are used for any Clevertouch service so you can decide if traffic or ports should be blocked.

Why can’t Clevertouch just flash a firmware with the full version of Android 12?

Unfortunately, large format interactive displays don’t work the same way as Standard Android Tablets or Mobile Phones. This is largely down to two reasons. Large format Interactive displays use Smart TV SOC (system-on-chip) chipsets, that are usually not eligible for the latest Android Operating systems, and large format Interactive displays are not eligible for GMS Certification or Play Services (Google Policy) so cannot be enrolled in the Google Admin console.

Are Clevertouch updating any newer Android Operating Systems?

At Clevertouch we always make sure that we provide the latest operating system that the system can support. By Q3 2022 Impact Plus 2 models will be upgraded from Android 9 to Android 11, and the Impact Max will ship with Android 11 out of the box. This will futureproof current Clevertouch models for Cyber Essentials certifications.

Got more questions? Get in touch at [email protected]

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