At the beginning of this year (January 2022) the Government announced that Local Authorities will receive £37.8m to boost their cyber resilience as part of the Government's first-ever Cyber Security Strategy to make public services more resilient against hostile cyber-attacks.
The plan includes the creation of a new Cyber Coordination Centre to help transform how data and cyber intelligence is shared across the public sector. A new service will also allow members of the public to report weaknesses in digital services.
The public sector's system’s security is a vital part of all operations. Any cyberattacks could cause mass disruption to the day-to-day activities of the authorities.
Steve White, Head of Business Development, Yotta said “After a number of recent high profile cyber security attacks on councils that have severely affected these organisations’ ability to deliver services to the public, it’s encouraging to see this additional funding being allocated. Councils will remain high profile targets for these attacks so ensuring their data is secure is crucial for frontline service delivery and continuity for residents and businesses”
The funding boost will be a welcome addition to local authorities to improve their cyber defences. Councils will be able to make changes such as: updating existing technology, educational resources for IT teams and employees within organisations and improving sensitive data handling.
Protecting personal and financial data is required by law, so preventing sensitive data leaks is essential. Through the budget increase, we will see more implantations to improve cyber security, alongside the additional pressure for IT professionals and teams to keep up with protecting systems and technology.
Councils may choose to spend some of their budget moving their systems to a cloud-first policy to help increase their cyber security. But they must consider how third parties manage data and what cybersecurity they provide.
As a result of the additional funding, pressure on IT professionals could reduce. With access to updated technology and resources. And following this, we could see a trend of an increase in cybersecurity awareness.
And for customers working with Yotta, we have obtained our Cyber Essentials certification. That was achieved through a government-backed, industry-supported scheme, so our solutions meet the latest security levels.
