e2e-assure & Validato partner to bolster public sector cyber defences

Cyber security providers e2e-assure and Validato have formed a partnership aimed at enhancing cyber resilience for organisations in the public sector through continuous security validation.

The collaboration will allow businesses and public sector organisations, including healthcare and local and central government bodies, to gain detailed insights into the real-world effectiveness of their cyber defences, identify gaps, and assess the impact of new and emerging threats.

Report findings

This partnership announcement follows the release of e2e-assure's Cyber Resilience 2025: Futureproofing AI Adoption report. The report surveyed cyber risk owners and found that 73% believe most cyber attacks result from inadequate employee diligence. In the healthcare sector specifically, 76% identified lack of diligence as the primary avenue for cyber attacks, while 86% have worked at an organisation that has experienced a cyber attack, an increase from 77% recorded last year.

The report also indicated a challenge with staff engagement in cyber security training within the healthcare sector. More than half, or 52%, of healthcare employees described themselves as only 'somewhat engaged' with cyber security training, and 28% stated they were 'not engaged' at all.

Security validation and staff training

Through the partnership, e2e-assure will leverage Validato's threat informed defence platform to help public sector bodies test and optimise their existing security controls. Key sectors such as healthcare and government, which handle sensitive citizen information, are expected to benefit from the continuous validation of their cyber security measures.

Validato utilises the MITRE ATT&CK framework to simulate real-world threat scenarios, enabling organisations to view and understand their current defence capabilities. This approach is designed to support ongoing education for staff in a controlled environment and to deliver a clear plan for patching vulnerabilities and improving security posture.

Breach disruption validation

One element of the approach, described as 'Breach Disruption Validation' by e2e-assure, will enable organisations to detect issues such as misconfigurations or over-privileged user accounts before malicious actors can exploit them.

Public sector perspective

Mike Upton, Sales Director and Public Sector Specialist at e2e-assure, highlighted the importance of maintaining compliance and meeting regulatory requirements for the public sector. In a statement, he said:

"Across the public sector, which is the bedrock of e2e-assure's customer base, compliancy and regulations are essential. For example, GovAssure and the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) provide key guidance and regulatory standards for local and central government. "Our partnership with Validato will not only better support compliance with these regulatory requirements for customers but will also allow the wider public sector to continue to drive long term proactive cyber resilience.

"The partnership provides organisations with full clarity of their cyber security posture, guiding them to ensure they are a harder target for cyber criminals. "Security coverage is perishable. With cyber attackers increasingly leveraging technology such as AI to increase the sophistication of threats, this real-time posture checking is more important than ever. "We talk a lot at e2e-assure about Attack Disruption. This partnership with Validato allows us to validate that and more, giving organisations the long-term protection they need to thrive."

Validato's approach

Ronan Lavelle, Chief Executive Officer of Validato, commented on the shift in cyber security needs and the alignment of values between the two companies. He said:

"Traditionally security testing has been very 'point in time', through processes such as penetration testing. The threat landscape however is changing every day, and there is a real requirement to have a more regular and continuous view on how a company's security posture is validated against the current landscape. "We're pleased to form this partnership with e2e-assure, a company which shares our core values regarding the importance of taking a preventative approach to cyber security, tuning and hardening an environment, to block threat actors prior to access."

The partnership is positioned by both companies as a response to increased sophistication in cyber threats, especially those driven by artificial intelligence, and the necessity for public sector organisations to maintain continuous vigilance and compliance.