NCSP Think Cyber Think Resilience: Cyber Pathfinders Exercises

In an increasingly interconnected world, Public Sector service providers need to look beyond organisational boundaries when thinking about cyber resilience and start planning for multi-agency responses, says William Barker head of the National Cyber Security Programme – Local at MHCLG

We all know that Digital Public Services in the UK are under constant cyber attack and local public sector services are being constantly targeted. While it’s true that they have done a lot of work in recent years to review and improve their cyber resilience, their interconnectivity and reliance on each other makes it increasingly necessary to look at cyber resilience beyond the boundary of individual organisations.

With this multi-agency approach in mind, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – with funding from the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) – has been working with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College (EPC)) to develop the new Pathfinder Programme aimed at helping to develop plans for multi-agency responses to cyber incidents.

The Pathfinder Programme offers free-of-charge exercises and training seminars – delivered at regional locations. The first element will be a series of multi-agency cyber exercises delivered between January and March 2019.

The exercises will help organisations develop a shared understanding of the multi-agency implications when responding to a significant cyber incident. They will provide an opportunity for participants to consider how their established inter-agency crisis management procedures support the response required for cyber incidents.

Participants – working in teams – will have the opportunity to reflect on cyber planning within their own organisations whilst exploring the wider multi-agency considerations of responding to a significant cyber incident.

Like all Pathfinder Programme events, the exercises are free to attend for public service delegates and are aimed at leaders, policy makers and practitioners from public service providers – especially (but not limited to) local authorities and local resilience forums or their public sector delivery partners – with responsibility for:

• Cyber resilience/ security
• Information assurance
• Data management and the impact of GDPR/NIS
• Democratic and electoral services
• Business continuity planning
• Emergency planning

Further information about the Pathfinder Programme can be found on Resilience Direct[1] – the dates and locations of each of the cyber exercises – including a link to the Eventbrite booking page is reproduced below:

[1] https://collaborate.resilience.gov.uk/CyberHub/home

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