Everton FC has made a defensive addition to its squad, but not the usual kind of signing you’d expect.
The Premier League club is working with Netskope in order to improve its cloud security and GDPR compliance.
While it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about a Premier League football club, the team deals with a lot of highly sensitive and confidential data, such as medical and personal data, contract information and details on its global fan base.
With this in mind, and GDPR just around the corner, the football club decided that it needed to keep the data secure in the cloud.
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The club’s decision to adopt the Netskope Active Platform will help to protect the data by analysing all cloud services in use, whether they are sanctioned or unsanctioned, so that there is visibility into what data is being stored and shared in the cloud.
The tech outfit says that its technology will help Everton FC to defend its confidential data and comply with the EU’s GDPR. 
The club is said to have undertaken a Cloud Risk Assessment with Netskope and its partner EveryCloud in order to reveal which services were in use within the business, in addition to see the benefits of implementing cloud access security broker software.
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“Data security is a key priority for the club,” said Phil Davies, ICT manager at Everton FC. “Information on players and their contracts is a vital asset for us and fans also entrust us with their data, including personally identifiable information. We take this responsibility seriously so we’re keen to provide employees with the right tools to boost productivity without compromising on security.”
“Netskope’s forward-thinking technology enables us to proactively identify risks and protect data so we can rest assured that players’ and fans’ sensitive data is protected in the cloud. Its deep cloud visibility capability and risk dashboard ensures we can accelerate our move to the cloud in a safe way – while demonstrating compliance with the GDPR.”
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The Netskope technology is said to provide cloud-scale security and “context-aware governance” of all cloud usage in real time across the corporate network, remote use, or from a mobile app or sync client.
Sanjay Beri, CEO at Netskope, said: “Everton FC understands the importance of protecting its confidential data, particularly when faced with stringent regulation requirements and an expanding threat landscape. Any large repository of data can be a target but major sporting clubs are an incredibly lucrative avenue for cybercriminals. To face this threat, Everton FC is implementing our solution to deliver unparalleled cloud security and support the club’s cloud-first philosophy.”
