Government launches Cybersecurity Strategy aimed at boosting resilience of key services

New strategy is backed by £37.8m of investment and will see the creation of a new Government Cyber Coordination Centre

The government has launched its first ever Cybersecurity Strategy backed by £37.8m of investment aimed at helping essential services boost their cyber resilience.

It will include the creation of a new Government Cyber Coordination Centre (GCCC) to better coordinate cybersecurity efforts across the public sector and to "rapidly identify, investigate and coordinate the government's response to attacks on public sector systems".

A new cross-government vulnerability reporting service will also be formed which will allow security researchers and members of the public to "easily report issues they identify with public sector digital services".

The government says its £37.8m investment will protect essential services and data on which citizens rely on including housing benefit, voter registration, electoral management, school grants and the provision of social care.

"Our public services are precious and without them individuals can't access the support that they rely on," chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster Steve Barclay said.

"If we want people to continue to access their pensions online, social care support from local government or health services, we need to step up our cyber defences.

"The cyber threat is clear and growing. But government is acting - investing over £2billion in cyber, retiring legacy IT systems and stepping up our skills and coordination."

In a speech set to be given today, Barclay also says that Britain is now the third most targeted country in the world in cyberspace from hostile states.

Of the 777 incidents managed by the National Cyber Security Centre between September 2020 and August 2021, around 40 per cent were aimed at the public sector.

The government is also proposing new laws to ramp up cybersecurity standards for MSPs - including fines of up to £17m for those which fail to put in place effective cybersecurity measures.