to understand and protect themselves from cyber risks. Many charities, for example, provide targeted support, advice and awareness-raising to vulnerable groups. Businesses and organisations 58. Businesses and organisations have a responsibility to ensure they are effectively managing their cyber risks, to become cyber resilient and to support their customers and the people who use their services. Businesses and organisations are increasingly dependent on digital technologies and online services to operate, innovate and grow. This improves services but also creates new risks and challenges, such as the ever increasing volume of personal data and digital assets which they are responsible for. This brings a responsibility to protect those data and assets, while maintaining services. Failure to do so can have significant reputational and economic implications for organisations and cause harm to their customers. Operators of essential services and providers of key digital services (such as cloud services) have particular responsibilities to address the cyber risks they face and meet the obligations set out in the Network & Information Systems Regulations (‘NIS regulations’). Advice and guidance from the NCSC helps to provide support to all businesses and organisations to help them protect their information, assets and systems. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also provides advice for organisations on their cyber security obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation. The cyber security sector and major technology companies 59. The UK’s growing cyber security sector has a critical role in responding to the emerging cyber threats and challenges that face our country. The rapid proliferation of connectable products and the accelerated digital transformation of businesses and organisations are providing opportunities for the sector to grow and innovate, providing new services and products. This strategy describes how the government will continue to support the growth of the UK cyber security sector and benefit from their capabilities and expertise by maintaining and strengthening our partnerships. We also want to strengthen the broader partnerships between academia, the wider technical community and the private sector, to ensure that we capitalise fully on the UK’s technical expertise and know-how. 60. The major technology companies that provide digital services have a crucial role to play in ensuring a secure environment for UK businesses and organisations to operate in. This is particularly true for the managed service providers and platform businesses that integrate a number of activities. They need to ensure the services they offer are ‘secure by default’ and are not overly dependent on their customers taking protective actions. Major technology companies also have a particular responsibility to prioritise their own cyber resilience. The increasing dependency of businesses, government and wider society on cloud and online services is creating new and unique vulnerabilities and interdependencies. 37