Cyber security and resilience
Cyber security involves protecting systems, networks, programmes, devices and data from malicious cyber activities. It also encompasses strategies for organisations to reduce the risk and impact of cyber attacks. For the public sector it is crucial to ensure that digital public services are safe and secure.
Cyber resilience refers to an organisation’s preparedness for a cyber attack and it’s ability to respond to and recover from a cyber incident when it occurs.
Importance in the Public Sector
Cyber attacks can significantly impact organisations of all sizes and sectors. Cyber resilience is a vital component of overall business and organisational resilience, and helps to ensure that operations can continue even when things go wrong. Most organisations in the UK are now dependent directly or indirectly on digital technologies to function. These organisations face cyber risks such as :
- loss of service or data breach
- Negative impacts for Employees/Stakeholders
- financial and reputational impact
According to 2025 UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey almost half of UK businesses experienced some form of cyber security breach/attack in last twelve months. The good news is that that improving your cyber resilience is easier than you might think. The Scottish Government’s National Cyber Security and Resilience Division supports Scottish public bodies in their cyber resilience journey. We can help find solutions and support for various cyber resilience challenges. The Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre also ensures that public bodies are prepared to respond to inevitable cyber incidents and helps coordinate cyber incident response when required.
Scotland also boasts a thriving cyber security goods and services sector, as well as a community of IT Managed Services providers. This expertise is available to organisations across all sectors.
