Department is to support localities to join the national Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership to strengthen cyber resilience awareness around emerging technologies such as internet of things
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is launching a programme to help local authorities’ awareness around how to deal with the security and recovery issues around the adoption of digital technologies.
William Barker (pictured) head of digital and cyber resilience at the DCLG, said the programme will be aimed at helping public authorities understand the relevant issues and will draw on what has been learned from the National Cyber Security Programme over the past five years. It will focus on helping localities to join the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership and work with Local Resilience Forums to raise wider awareness of the emerging civic cyber resilience agenda.
He was speaking at the department’s event on the internet of things and local public services staged today as part of its Local Digital Campaign.
Barker said that the programme will revolve around a number of key themes: strategy, leadership and partnership, business continuity and civil contingencies, transformation and resilience, and information and infrastructure.
He said that organisations should include cyber resilience as part of their planning for using the internet of things, and pointed out that academic researchers are already looking at the possibility of cyber-attacks across the Internet of Things being potentially triggered by someone using a mobile device.
Three points
“It’s a part of that wider understanding about where you take IoT, where you take change, where you take those processes together,” he said, adding that there are three crucial points to keep in mind.
One is that cyber has changed the rules in the way we work, and the second that resilience is not just an issue for technologists but is equally important to policy officials.
“It should be a priority task on every board, on every council agenda, and become a regular part of the experience.” he said.
Thirdly, it requires regular and effective testing of the processes in an organisation.
More details of the programme should be available soon.
