How East Renfrewshire Council brought continuous risk assessment to its mobile estate.
A small team with a large review workload.
When a colleague requested a new app, the council’s IT team had to work through developer privacy and security policies and chase missing information. App updates created further checks. The aim was to support productive staff while managing security, privacy and compliance risks.
“You might find a contact form on the website, but they’d be under no obligation to respond, especially if it’s a free app and you’re not even a customer yet.”
Senior ICT Officer for Cybersecurity & Compliance
The officer described the process as “many hours of manual work”, adding: “It was a huge struggle and a constant time sink.”
Ratings guide the decision. Context completes it.
MobSTR’s application assessment and ratings platform gave the council evidence about vulnerabilities, development practices and privacy risks. The team used it to inform app approvals and to monitor whether applications continued to meet policy.
Under the council’s approach, an app rated B or above could be approved, while a C triggered a hands-on review. A bird-call identifier was one example: the officer reviewed its microphone and location access and approved it for the environmental team because those permissions were necessary for its purpose.
“It’s been a huge jump and such a simplification for us. This work would be impossible even for a larger team; a huge commitment time wise.”
Senior ICT Officer for Cybersecurity & Compliance
A practical evidence trail for every review.
Across 120 managed applications, the council reported less manual work and a clearer basis for explaining approval decisions to colleagues.
“You can run the scan, export the results and attach it to a change request, and you’ve got a paper trail as an IT person. It’s sometimes about having a definitive source to say ‘no’, because that’s often harder to do than just say ‘yes’ to everyone.”
Senior ICT Officer for Cybersecurity & Compliance
The officer also valued the support: “Anytime I’ve logged a support query the guys have been fantastic at getting back to us and are all over anything straightaway.”
At the time of the interview, the council was looking ahead to proposed Microsoft Store scanning: “The Microsoft integration will be great for us. It will be another massive jump.”
About this customer story & photography
A cybersecurity team of one supported this estate at the time of the original interview.
Estate sizes and quotations reflect the original interview. Its reference to Microsoft Store scanning describes a future feature discussed at that time.
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Illustrative Glasgow-area skyline from the original case study.