As a public sector leader in Cyber Security, you understand the critical role you play in protecting essential services and sensitive information. The stakes are high—between 2020 and 2021, 40% of all cyber-attacks in the UK targeted public sector organisations.
The UK Government Cyber Security Strategy sets out an ambitious but necessary goal:
In this three-part guide, we’ll break down the Government’s five objectives and their outcomes, key milestones, and focused actions to help you navigate these challenges.
Whether you’re managing day-to-day operations or leading long-term strategic initiatives, this blog is here to support you in aligning with these goals, building resilience, and making meaningful progress in the fight against cyber threats.
Objective 1: Managing Cyber Security Risk
The first objective of the UK Government’s Cyber Security Strategy focuses on understanding and managing the risks tied to technology and sensitive information.
Why does this matter? Your actions directly contribute to the security and resilience of these essential systems.
The Government has set eight outcomes under this objective to help tackle cyber security risks.
Outcome 1: Governance and Accountability
Cyber Security risks can feel overwhelming without a clear plan. That’s why the Government is putting governance and accountability at the centre of its approach, ensuring every organisation knows who’s responsible and how to take action when it matters most.
Here’s how it’s designed to work:
Cyber risks as part of the bigger picture: Cyber risks won’t be treated as a separate issue—they’ll be baked into overall business risk and resilience planning.
Who’s in charge? Every organisation will have clear roles and responsibilities for managing systems and services, with leaders (like Accounting Officers) taking ownership of risks.
Keeping leaders in the loop: Transparent reporting and escalation channels mean decision-makers—whether they’re senior leaders or board members—get the information they need to act fast.
Teamwork across departments: Lead Government departments will look at the bigger picture, helping organisations under their wing improve their Cyber Security and manage shared risks.
Spotting the big threats: A central governance structure will keep an eye on risks that could affect multiple organisations or even the whole Government, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
For you, this means:
- Taking ownership of the Cyber Security risks in your organisation and ensuring clear accountability within your team.
- Embedding Cyber Security into your overall risk management strategy, so it’s part of your day-to-day operations.
- Setting up simple and transparent ways for your team to escalate risks to you or other senior leaders.
- Staying informed about broader risks that could impact your organisation and working with your lead department to align on solutions.
By focusing on these areas, you’ll be able to build a resilient organisation that’s ready to tackle Cyber Security challenges head-on.
Outcome 2: Assets and Vulnerabilities
Can you protect what you can’t see? Without knowing what systems, software, and data you own, you can’t secure them. The Government’s plan ensures you’ll have the tools to track and monitor your assets while addressing vulnerabilities quickly.
Step One: Track Your Digital Estate
It starts with knowing exactly what you have. Organisations will use automated asset discovery methods to monitor systems, hardware, software, and data—even those managed by suppliers. Cloud services will make this even easier by providing better visibility.
These tools will highlight weaknesses, so you know where action is needed. With this approach, there’s no more guessing—just clear, actionable insights.
Step Two: Stay Ahead of Threats
Cyber threats evolve quickly. The plan ensures organisations can adapt by:
- Spotting and addressing vulnerabilities as they emerge.
- Providing a secure way for employees, researchers, and even the public to report risks.
- Running robust vulnerability management programmes to ensure nothing gets missed.
The goal is simple: catch risks early and fix them fast.
Step Three: Work Together
Cyber threats don’t just affect one organisation—they often impact multiple systems. That’s why the Government is encouraging collaboration. When critical risks are found, they’ll be shared securely across Government to help others act quickly. This collective approach makes the entire system stronger.
The Central Reporting Hub: A Smarter Way to Tackle Vulnerabilities
One organisation’s vulnerability could be a risk to others. That’s why the Government is introducing a centralised system to handle vulnerability reporting at scale. It’s designed to make identifying and fixing weaknesses faster, more coordinated, and more effective across the public sector.
The Central Reporting Hub
Here’s a breakdown of what the Government plan to do to with their new vulnerability reporting services:
- Weaknesses can be securely reported by anyone—employees, researchers, or the public.
- Valid reports will go directly to the right organisation for action.
- By managing this centrally, vulnerabilities can be tackled faster and more effectively.
- What This Means for You
For public sector leaders, this is about having a clear plan. Focus on using tools to gain visibility of your digital estate, encourage open reporting of risks, and collaborate with centralised services to stay ahead of potential issues.
Outcome 3: Data Assets
From personal data to classified records, your organisation handles sensitive information daily. Protecting this data starts with understanding what you have, where it’s stored, and who has access to it.
Let’s break down their plan:
Mapping out your data
Every organisation needs a clear picture of the data it handles. This includes:
- What the data is (e.g., personal details, financial records, or classified files).
- Where it’s stored—whether on internal servers, in the cloud, or with a third-party provider.
- How and with whom it’s shared, both internally and externally.
Assess the Risks
Not all data carries the same level of risk. A press release draft isn’t as sensitive as medical records or national security information. Organisations will need to:
- Identify the level of risk for each type of data.
- Apply protections that match the risk—like stricter access controls for highly sensitive data.
This ensures you’re prioritising the right areas and using resources effectively.
- How this applies to your role:
- Prioritise protection: Identify high-risk data and apply the right safeguards, like encryption or access controls.
- Build a culture of compliance: Make sure your organisation follows data protection laws and educates staff about the importance of handling information securely.
This ensures you’re prioritising the right areas and using resources effectively.
Outcome 4: Supply Chain Risk
Using suppliers within the public sector role is given. As you’re aware when using suppliers, comes added risks. If a supplier’s system is compromised, it could open the door to attackers and put sensitive Government systems at risk.
The UK Government’s strategy focuses on managing these risks by:
- Identifying critical suppliers and understanding how their systems interact with Government networks.
- Ensuring suppliers meet strong Cyber Security standards.
- Building Cyber Security into every stage of procurement.
Firstly, it’s important to understand your suppliers.
Which suppliers are essential to your operations? What services do they provide? And how do their systems connect to yours? Having a clear picture of these dependencies helps pinpoint vulnerabilities and manage them effectively.
Setting Expectations for Security
Suppliers won’t be left guessing about what’s required. The Government will:
- Introduce clear Cyber Security principles that all suppliers must follow.
- Include robust security clauses in contracts, ensuring even subcontractors meet the same standards.
For smaller suppliers, foundational requirements like Cyber Essentials will ensure they have the basics in place without being overwhelmed.
The Government plans to lead by example. By using its buying power to set high standards, it will push key suppliers to strengthen their security practices. This ripple effect will encourage better security across the entire supply chain ecosystem, benefiting not just Government operations but the wider UK economy.
And when things go wrong? Having a clear picture of how suppliers connect to Government systems will make it much easier to respond. The Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GCCC) will take the lead in managing supplier risks and coordinating quick responses to incidents.
- How You Can Lead the Change
- Mapping out your critical suppliers and understanding how their systems connect to yours.
- Working closely with procurement teams to build strong security requirements into every contract.
- Encouraging smaller suppliers to adopt basic security standards.
- Collaborating with central initiatives like the GCCC to manage risks and respond to incidents.
Outcome 5: Threat Information
Cyber threats evolve quickly, making collaboration essential. The Government’s strategy ensures timely, actionable threat intelligence is shared across organisations to help leaders like you stay ahead of risks.
The Government will monitor systems for suspicious activity, combining local insights with intelligence from other agencies, private companies, and automated tools. Sharing this threat information ensures that organisations can respond quickly and effectively, prioritising risks and preventing attacks before they happen..
Key Points From This Outcome:
- Understanding threats: It’s not just about knowing vulnerabilities but understanding who’s behind them, their tactics, and their goals.
- Gathering intelligence: Threat data comes from local monitoring, shared insights, and automated tools to provide a clear, up-to-date picture of risks.
- Taking action: Sharing intelligence enables faster, smarter decisions, helping organisations prevent attacks or respond quickly to emerging threats.
How Can Public Sector Leaders Help?
As a leader, you can:
- Keep your systems monitored: Spot unusual activity and report it.
- Use shared intelligence: Leverage centralised data to address risks effectively.
- Work with others: Collaborate with Government and private partners to strengthen overall defences.
Outcome 6: Cyber Security Data
How do you make the best decisions without the right data? For many Government organisations, the answer is: you can’t. Some have access to a wealth of Cyber Security data, while others don’t have enough to work with.
This outcome focuses on ensuring all Government organisations have access to the data they need to make smarter, faster decisions about Cyber Security.
What Data Do The Government Need?:
Threat information: Details about potential attacks and who might launch them.
Vulnerability insights: Knowledge of weak spots in systems, software, or processes.
What challenge might you face?
Not all organisations have the same access to Cyber Security data. While some departments are data-rich, others lack the insights needed to make quick, informed decisions. This imbalance makes it harder to predict, prevent, and respond to cyber threats effectively, leaving some organisations more vulnerable than others.
The Government plan to put this into effect:
- 1. Make Better Use of Existing Data
Government organisations already collect valuable data from sources like:
- Logs from systems and monitoring tools.
- Threat intelligence shared across departments.
The goal is to combine and analyse this data to provide clearer, more useful insights.
- 2. Share Critical Information
- Cyber Security data is shared across Government in a way that’s secure, legal, and appropriate for its sensitivity.
- Departments get the insights they need to respond to threats quickly and effectively.
- 3. Turn Data into Action
It’s not just about collecting data—it must be presented in a way that’s easy to understand and use. Actionable insights help organisations prioritise risks and respond faster.
Key Considerations For This Outcome:
- Embrace shared intelligence: Use the insights provided by the GCCC to strengthen your organisation’s Cyber Security.
- Act on what you know: Turn data into decisions to prioritise and address the most pressing risks.
Outcome 7: Government Cyber Security Assurance
How do you know your Cyber Security measures are working? The Government have put together a Cyber Security assurance which offers a structured way to evaluate your risks, test your defences, and build confidence in your systems.
What is Cyber Security Assurance?
Think of it as a health check for your organisation’s Cyber Security. It focuses on:
- Understanding risks: Providing a clear picture of your strengths and weaknesses.
- Verifying defences: Confirming that risks are managed within acceptable limits.
- Improving security: Highlighting gaps so you can take targeted action.
At its core, assurance is about helping leaders like you make informed decisions with confidence.
How Does It Work?
- 1. A Consistent Framework
The Government will use the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) to evaluate Cyber Security across organisations. This ensures a standard approach and focuses on protecting the most critical functions, including essential public services and national infrastructure.
- 2. Independent Validation
Results won’t just come from internal reviews—they’ll be verified by external experts. This includes:
- Penetration testing: Simulated attacks to uncover vulnerabilities.
- Red teaming: Testing how well your organisation can detect and respond to threats.
- 3. Automation for Speed
Where possible, assurance results will be made machine-readable. This means faster analysis of risks and trends, enabling quicker responses to potential issues.
Why Cyber Security Assurance Matters
Central Government departments must follow this structured process, while other public sector organisations are encouraged to adapt it.
For public sector leaders, this means gaining a clear view of your organisation’s Cyber Security posture, prioritising critical improvements, and contributing to a stronger, more coordinated Government.
Outcome 8: Private Sector and International Partnerships
Cyber threats don’t operate in isolation, and neither should you. That’s why the Government is prioritising strategic partnerships with private companies and international allies to strengthen Cyber Security at both a national and global level.
Why are partnerships so essential?
- Private sector expertise: Many of the technologies and systems the Government relies on are developed and maintained by private companies. Collaborating with these businesses and researchers ensures innovation and security go hand in hand.
- Global collaboration: Cyber threats cross borders. By sharing knowledge and strategies with international allies, the Government can track adversaries more effectively and improve collective defences.
What’s the plan?
- Working with businesses: The Government is building trusted relationships with private companies and academia to address critical Cyber Security challenges together.
- Uniting globally: Sharing intelligence and strategies with international partners helps create a united front against cyber adversaries and establishes stronger global Cyber Security standards.
- Why does this matter for public sector leaders?
By partnering with private and international organisations, the Government ensures access to the latest technologies, expertise, and resources. For you, this means being part of a coordinated effort that combines innovation, global defence strategies, and shared knowledge to better protect your organisation and the services you provide.
Moving Forward with Confidence
The UK Government Cyber Security Strategy is a bold plan to tackle the most pressing challenges in protecting public sector systems and services. By focusing on these eight outcomes, leaders like you can build resilience, prioritise improvements, and ensure your organisation is prepared for the evolving cyber threat landscape.
But this is just the beginning. In part two of our three-part guide, we’ll dive deeper into the timeline milestones and specific actions you can take to align with these goals.
If you’d like to discuss how we can support your Cyber Security strategy, get in touch with us at 0121 663 0055 or email us at enquiries@equilibrium-security.co.uk. We’re here to help.
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