Ayrshire College partners with Acumen Cyber to bolster its cyber defences through its CREST-accredited 24/7 Security Operations Centre
Glasgow, UK – November X, 2025 – Ayrshire College today announced it has partnered with Acumen Cyber, HEFESTIS and Academia to bolster its cyber defences and offer its students unique experience in real-world cyber security operations.
Through the collaboration, students will learn about working on the front lines of cyber defence, offering them exciting opportunities to visit Acumen’s state-of-the-art SOC and gain insights into real-world cyber security operations.
The Higher and Further education sector sits at the intersection of knowledge, innovation and collaboration. But this very openness, coupled with constrained resources, makes it one of the most attractive and vulnerable sectors for cyber attackers today.
Recognising the importance of proactively getting ahead of the threat, Ayrshire College has 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, colleges and public sector bodies across the UK. As a trusted and recognised body, 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 a longstanding, independent and trusted voice on cyber security for the UK’s further and higher education sector and we have absolute confidence in the service Acumen is delivering to Ayrshire College, so much so that HEFESTIS has also onboarded Acumen’s SOC to protect its own infrastructure. Its team of engineers have specialist experience in delivering security to further and higher education, which will alleviate a significant strain from the college, while also making significant enhancements to its cyber defences,” said Brian Henderson, CEO of HEFESTIS.
In addition to providing security operations, Acumen will support Ayrshire College’s mission to develop the next generation of cyber talent through graduate recruitment schemes, guest lectures and collaborative research projects.
“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.
About Ayrshire College:
Ayrshire College is one of Scotland’s largest and most forward-looking colleges, delivering both further and higher education across Ayrshire and beyond. Established in 2013, the College operates across three main campuses in Ayr, Kilmarnock, and Kilwinning.
Each year, the College supports approximately 13,000 students and employs 800+ staff, offering a wide range of programmes from school partnerships to degree-level qualifications. These are delivered across key sectors including engineering, renewables, digital, health and social care, and construction, aligned with both regional workforce needs and national priorities.
For more information, please visit:https://www1.ayrshire.ac.uk/
About HEFESTIS:
HEFESTIS is a not-for-profit shared service organisation, jointly owned by members across the University and Colleges sector and beyond.
It provides qualified, sector experienced subject matter experts in information management including Cyber Security, Data Protection and Service Management with over 30 years’ experience directly within the education sector.
For more information, please visit: https://hefestis.ac.uk/
About Academia:
Since 2003, Academia has been a leading provider of IT solutions and Managed Services for Education, Public Sector and Business in the UK. Today, we’re very proud of our 300 team members and our community of long-standing customers who trust us with their investment in technology.
For more information, please visit: www.academia.co.uk
About Acumen Cyber:
Acumen Cyber was founded on the belief that security operations should never stand still.
Too many organisations are left underserved, facing providers that are either impersonal, rigid, or priced beyond reach.
We saw a gap between what businesses truly needed and what the industry was delivering.
Acumen was built to fill this gap.
We combine world-class technology with outstanding security engineering talent, delivering a service to our customers that is bespoke, nimble and grounded in real human expertise.
At the heart of Acumen’s offering is our 24/7 CREST Accredited Security Operations Centre (SOC), which has been built to deliver enterprise-grade protection through a unique combination of outstanding cyber defence engineers, market-leading security tooling, our own proprietary technology and world-leading threat intelligence and automation.
Unlike traditional security providers, Acumen doesn’t just monitor threats - it actively prevents, detects and responds to them in real-time. We invest heavily in automation so our engineers can focus on what truly matters: safeguarding our customers from evolving threats.