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Laying the foundations for the local public services of the future

Cyber Security

The Local Digital Declaration includes a commitment to the continuous improvement of cyber security practice to support the security, resilience and integrity of our digital services and systems.

As part of this, a dedicated Local Digital team is conducting a discovery into how MHCLG can support local authorities to reduce the incidence and impact of cyber attacks and support sustainable cyber health.

Our work

The cyber team wrapped up a cyber security pre-discovery in May 2020, and the project has now moved into the discovery phase. You can read the full pre-discovery report (PDF) on our website.

During discovery, we plan to validate our findings and focus on the elements that will have the greatest impact on cyber health and resilience at local authorities.

Recent blogs

Follow our progress

We will be sharing regular updates on the MHCLG Digital blog and Twitter (@LDgovUK). You can find our fortnightly sprint notes on the LDCU Medium page.

You can also subscribe to our cyber newsletter to receive monthly updates on our progress, as well as news relevant to those working in and around local government cyber security.

Upcoming events

As part of our commitment to working in the open, we will be hosting virtual Cyber Catchups – in a ‘Show and Tell’ format – every 2 weeks. The calls will take place on Friday 12 June, 26 June, 10 July, 24 July and 31 July from 11.30am to 12pm.

If you are working in a national or local government agency and would like to join us, cyber security capacity at a local authority, please complete this form to receive login details.

Cyber Catchups: Request joining details

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Have your say

We welcome further collaboration and input, so if you would like to share with us any strong evidence to support our research please email it to cyber@localdigital.gov.uk.

Join our user research panel

We would like to speak to people in the following areas regarding cyber security in your local authority:

  • Senior Leadership Team: Executive level – plays a part in the decision making of apportioning budget between departments
  • Service Director or Manager: Responsible for the smooth running and effectiveness of digital or non-digital council services. A decision-maker of their service
  • Procurement staff: Those involved with making decisions around procurement, have responsibility around selection, review, screening and contracting of suppliers.
  • Head of IT/Head of Digital/Chief Digital Officer (CDO): Responsible for the running of either the IT estate or digital services
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): Accountability for the handling and security of data

To take part in an interview and help us support cyber security at local authorities, please complete this short form.