May 3rd, 2023
3 mins
New cyber security measures have been introduced in order to increase the UK’s cyber resilience and protect the UK Government’s essential IT functions from ever growing threats.
Under the new rules, all central government departments will have their cyber health reviewed annually through new, more robust criteria.
Known as GovAssure, the new cyber security scheme will be run by the Cabinet Office’s Government Security Group (GSG), with input from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
GovAssure will bring about a number of changes in the way the government protects itself from cyber threats. These include:
- Using NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) to review the assurance measures all government departments have. The framework includes measures such as setting out indicators of good practice for managing security risk and protecting against a cyber attack and was designed for making critical national services resilient to attack.
- Departments will also be assessed by third parties to increase standardisation and validate results.
- Centralised cyber security policy and guidance to help government organisations identify best practice.
In January 2022, the UK Government launched the first ever Government Cyber Security Strategy (GCSS) which laid out the challenges facing government security and presented a vision for improving resilience.
Cabinet Office
April 2023
