27th January 2022 – London, UK – Crossword Cybersecurity Plc (AIM:CCS, "Crossword", the "Company" or the "Group"), the technology commercialisation company focused on cyber security and risk management, is today announcing that its online software assurance platform, Rizikon, is being made freely available to the British Educational Suppliers Association ("BESA") as a single-use cyber security assessment to support them towards Cyber Essentials certification.

BESA members will be able to use Rizikon to self-assess their cyber security alignment with the UK Government's Cyber Essentials scheme. A report from the self-assessment will be issued with a high-level overview and 'Scorecard', helping them identify areas of weakness. The first ten BESA members to complete the assessment will also be eligible for a one-hour consultation with a Crossword cyber security specialist to discuss their report in more detail. Should the member firm want to move towards formal Cyber Essentials certification, Crossword will, for a fixed fee, assist them with achieving that goal.

Additionally, Crossword will offer a limited free use of the Rizikon platform to BESA members interested in utilising the platform to assess their supply chain risks. Rizikon is a secure, encrypted portal which puts an organisation in control of managing risks in its supply chain and the financial, regulatory and reputational risks they indirectly carry.

Customers can also opt to upgrade to Rizikon Pro, which allows them to create their own question sets and scoring approaches, enabling a 360-degree view of supply chain risk in a single pane of glass.

Rizikon Pro also contains standard questionnaires on subjects such as cyber security, GDPR, supplier on-boarding, modern slavery, and anti-bribery & corruption.

Crossword will provide a presentation to update existing & potential investors on business plans, at the Proactive One2One Investor Forum webinar on 27 January 2022 at 6pm.

Hayley Baptist, Membership Manager, BESA, said: "We are delighted that our partnership with Crossword Cybersecurity will give our members the opportunity to assess their supply chain risk at scale while also looking at their own cyber resilience against the UK Cyber Essentials scheme."

Sean Arrowsmith, Group Sales Director at Crossword Cybersecurity PLC, said: "We are very happy to be supporting BESA members manage cyber risks across their supply chains through access to Rizikon. Through the self-assessment, Rizikon will help them identify where to invest resources to reduce risks and build resilient supply chains and work towards becoming Cyber Essentials certified. Additionally, those members that are looking to undertake assessments of their suppliers can also get access to a free version of the platform to drive efficiencies and some automation in that process."

BESA members can will be able to register for Rizikon access through the members area on the BESA site.

Contacts

Crossword Cybersecurity plc – Tel: +44 (0) 20 3953 8460
Email: info@crosswordcybersecurity.com
Tom Ilube, Chief Executive Officer
Mary Dowd, Chief Financial Officer

Grant Thornton (Nominated Adviser) – Tel: +44 (0) 20 7383 5100
Colin Aaronson / Daphne Zhang

Hybridan LLP (Broker) – Tel: +44 (0)203 764 2341
Claire Louise Noyce

For media enquiries contact:

Duncan Gurney, GingerPR
crossword@gingerpr.co.uk - Tel: +44 (0)1932 485 300

About Crossword Cybersecurity plc

Crossword Cybersecurity plc focuses on the development and commercialisation of university research-based cyber security and risk management related software and cyber security consulting. The Group's specialist cyber security product development and software engineering teams work with its university partners to develop the research concept into a fully-fledged commercial product that it will then take to market. The Group's aim is to build up a portfolio of revenue generating, intellectual property based, cyber security products. Rizikon Assurance, Crossword's leading product, is a SaaS platform that enables medium to large companies to assess and manage all risks from their suppliers. Nixer CyberML, Crossword's most recently launched product, is a new tool for businesses that want to solve advanced security and cybercrime problems, such as detecting and dealing with compromised accounts, fraud, and in-application denial of service attacks. Identiproof, Crossword's most recent product, is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) verifiable credentials compatible middleware and wallet technology. Crossword's team of expert cyber security consultants leverages years of experience in national security, defence and commercial cyber intelligence and operations to provide bespoke advice tailored to its clients' business needs, including threat monitoring.