Ayrshire College partners with Acumen Cyber to strengthen security and offer students cyber work experience

Ayrshire College has partnered with Acumen Cyber, HEFESTIS and Academia to bolster its cyber defences and offer its students experience in real-world cyber security operations.

The collaboration will provide students with an opportunity to learn about working on the front lines of cyber defence through visits to Acumen’s state-of-the-art SOC, as well as lectures from Acumen’s team of engineers and graduate recruitment and sponsored research possibilities.

Ayrshire College has also onboarded Acumen and HEFESTIS’s SecurEd service to enhance its cyber defences through Acumen’s CREST-accredited Security Operations Centre (SOC).

SecurEd delivers enterprise-grade protection through a single, comprehensive service model that eliminates coverage gaps and provides predictable, fixed-price support. The model ensures every aspect of the college’s environment is continuously monitored, secured and managed by experts who understand and help mitigate the unique risks facing education providers.

“Cyber security is no longer just a nice to have, it is essential in ensuring the safe delivery of education to our students. This relationship is built on the trust we have in HEFESTIS, and because of the full service model delivered by Acumen. Unlike other providers, we don’t need to pick and choose services, leaving certain areas of our infrastructure exposed. Instead the model covers our entire environment, giving us the confidence and reassurance that security is being managed 24/7 by experts in further education cyber defence,” said Brad Johnstone, Director of Digital Infrastructure at Ayrshire College.

Ayrshire College also benefits from direct access to Acumen’s team of full-stack security engineers, who are all experts across the full spectrum of security operations. With a dedicated SOC client lead, and a non-tiered SOC model, every engineer is empowered to handle incidents from detection through to resolution, which ensures fast, consistent and expert response at every stage.

The partnership is supported by HEFESTIS, a sector owned, not-for-profit organisation that provides shared cyber security services to universities and colleges across the UK. Ayrshire College consulted HEFESTIS as part of the tender process and received full support for Acumen, with HEFESTIS thoroughly vetting the service and recognising the unrivalled expertise it provides to the college.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with Ayrshire College. Our close work with higher and further education has shaped SecurEd into a bespoke service that meets the sector’s exact needs. Our partnership with Ayrshire is further recognition of the value of our offering, combining protection, education and collaboration,” said Mark Robertson, CEO of Acumen Cyber.