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CYBER


GCHQ is Britain’s ‘listening post’ and plays a role helping public sector agencies strengthen their cyber resilience


Cyber agency working to support Scotland’s new social security agency


National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) advising on new body’s cloud platform


BY KEVIN O’SULLIVAN


Cyber specialists from the GCHQ-affiliated National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have been working with the new Social Security Scotland agency, according to the organisation’s annual review. Te new devolved agency –


which is being set up by the Scottish Government to dis-


tribute benefits payments – has received expert guidance and advice from the NCSC as it builds its public facing cloud system. Te NCSC, which thwarted


more than 650 cyber attacks in the last year, including attempts to imitate the emergency services and a plot to hack airlines, has been liaising with public sector agencies across Scotland in a bid to bolster cyber resilience across


28 | FUTURESCOT | SPRING 2020


health, government and local government web domains. According to its Annual Review


2019, the NCSC now has its web check service – part of the Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme – installed across all 32 local authorities in Scotland, a 100% coverage rate, compared to 97.75% across the UK as a whole. Web Check, launched in 2017, provides automated vulnerability scanning of registered live web services, making websites a less attractive target, by finding obvious security issues and pointing them out to the website’s owner so that they can be fixed.


Te NCSC has also been


working closely with the health services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure they can benefit from PDNS (Protective Domain Name System), service, designed to help NHS organisa- tions to defend against future attacks, including ransomware. It is also providing technical sup- port to bespoke devolved health platforms. John Campbell, Head of Digital


Risk & Security Social Security Directorate, Scottish Government, said: “Our engagement with the NCSC has helped us to establish our executive agency, Social Security Scotland, followed by the launch of our public facing cloud based digital platform, which underpins the delivery of the first live devolved benefit payments Scotland. “Te NCSC has provided us


with expert advice and guidance through technical workshops and engaging its partners to share experiences. Tis has given us valuable assurance in support of our strategic security objectives


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