Assured Cyber Security for Client Data

We are very proud to announce that Corroconsult UK Limited have achieved re-certification for Cyber Essentials. Certification confirms that protocols set by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in the UK are in place.

Post-pandemic the landscape of the industry has changed, seeing increased working from home / working remotely - this certification provides assurance to our clients that our cyber security protocols will continue to protect against the ever evolving, sophisticated and major cyber-attacks regardless of where or how we operate.

We would like to express our thanks to Molly Nock and John Tuckey for their efforts in particular towards ensuring that we continue to provide our clients with the assurances they require with respect to cyber security.

Cyber Essentials Certified

We are very pleased to announce that Corroconsult UK Ltd has achieved the Government backed, industry supported Cyber essentials certification by the NCSC National Cyber Security Centre.

The certification is another step forward in our journey of striving to be at the forefront of the industry. We believe that we are one of the first cathodic protection companies to achieve this certification. It demonstrates how serious we are regarding our cyber security across all aspects of our company and adds a level of external assurance that we are putting the correct protocols in place to protect our systems and client data. We are elated that our efforts and strict protocols in place have been recognised by the Cyber Essentials certification and we plan to renew our certification annually to retain external assurance and to stay up to date with the best procedures in online security.

The scheme is jointly developed by the National Cyber Security Centre UK and the UK Government and covers the most common online based cyber threats. These include hacking, phishing and password guessing. The assessment process involved assessing the following five technical controls of our IT infrastructure: Firewalls, Secure Configuration, User Access Control, Malware Protection and Patch Management. We were already compliant in most of the assessment with only minor adjustments to gain our certification.

The ongoing dedication and contributions of our office personnel has been imperative in achieving the certification and a huge thank you for all their efforts is well deserved.

Moving up to ISO 45001:2018

Since its inception Corroconsult has strived to be at the very forefront of the industry in attaining accreditation against internationally recognised standards pertaining to its Quality Assurance / Quality Control, Environmental, Health & Safety Management systems.

The Company has held its accreditation to ISO 9001 for its Quality Management system since January 2000.

In June 2005 the Company achieved accreditation to ISO 14001 for its Environmental Management system, being one of the first cathodic protection companies worldwide to hold this certification. The award led to the Business section of the local newspaper (Shropshire Star) running an article on the Company’s achievement.

February 2013 saw the Company achieve accreditation to OHSAS 18001 for its Health & Safety Management system, completing an overall Integrated Management System (IMS) approach to all three standards.

As well as the annual external audits to our IMS system for continued accreditation to the latest standards, since August 2017 the IMS has also been audited for both in-house and on-site application by Achilles UVDB (Utilities Vendor Database) personnel, achieving a 100% pass mark in all aspects in the past three years as part of the B1 category audit.

In March 2018 the new ISO 45001 standard was published representing a gradual phase-out of the existing OHSAS 18001 standard where companies’ certification was due to expire.

Corroconsult are delighted to have been awarded accreditation to this latest standard following the latest external audit of our IMS on 14 April 2021.

It is the diligence of all our office and site personnel continuing to work within, and provide feedback to improvement on, our IMS that ensures our continued accreditation.

Corroconsult are now seeking to ensure that we are one of the first cathodic protection companies to achieve the Cyber Essentials certification provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (UK) to deliver assurance to all clients with respect to their data.

How can Solar Farms affect Buried Pipelines and what can be done about it?

This presentation was made by Ken Lax, Technical Director of Corroconsult, on behalf of the Pipeline Industries Guild (PIG) Onshore Panel as part of their ongoing free webinar series.

The presentation is aimed as a non-tenchnical introduction to this rapidly growing phenomenon, within the field of corrosion, as the scale and number of photovoltaic (PV) systems, i.e. solar farms, increase worldwide.

No electrical or electrochemical knoweledge is assumed.

An overview of the following is given;

• External corrosion on buried pipelines

• Cathodic protection and coatings

• Effects of stray current on external corrosion

• Photovoltaic (PV) system construction components

• Sources of electrical interference from PV systems

• Prevention of stray currents from PV systems

• Mitigation of adverse effects on buried pipelines

The scope of the presentation covers the follwoing three possibilities;

• New PV System with Existing Pipeline

• Existing PV System with Existing Pipeline

• Existing PV System with New Pipeline

All slides prepared by Ken Lax and Richard Lindley (Projects Director at Corroconsult UK Limited) with additional content provided by Professor C. Charalambous (Univeristy of Cyprus) and Dr Thomas Löffler (Dekotec).

New ISO 20313 Standard Released - Cathodic Protection of Ships

The new ISO 20313 standard for the Cathodic Protection of ships chaired by Ken Lax was published on 30 January 2018.  This is a major achievement for the working group and especially for the UK mirror group participants (Pat Lydon, Winston Shepherd and Andrew Willis). 

The plenary meeting of ISO Technical Committee (TC) 8 and Sub Committee (SC) 8 – Ship design met on 31 January 2018 and complimented the working group on meeting all the deadlines and producing a good standard. 

The working group has now been disbanded, although the Chairman of TC8 SC8 requested Ken to remain on the sub-committee to provide assistance.

The new Standard is available for download here: https://www.iso.org/standard/67645.html

New Pipeline Interference Standard being Chaired by Ken Lax

Ken Lax (Technical Director) will be chairing the ISO Technical Committee 67 Sub Committee 2 Working Group 24 (TC67 SC2 WG24) committee drafting the new ISO stray current standard at BSI offices in London from 15 to 17 August 2017.

The new standard will cover all aspects of electrical interference on pipelines.

This new standard will be ISO 21857 and will include the effects of space weather (tellurics), varying DC from traction systems, steady state DC from CP systems, and induced AC.

Induced AC is already covered in detail in another ISO standard and this new standard will provide an introduction and some additional information on AC corrosion.

Delegates from more than 15 countries will participate in the drafting process.