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Section 5
DEFEND
which products and services offer them
the greatest security. The Government
will also explore how to link these product
ratings to new and existing regulators, and
ways to warn consumers when they are
about to take an action online that might
compromise their security.
Measuring success
5.2.7. The Government will measure
its success in building a secure Internet
by assessing progress towards the
following outcomes:
• the majority of commodity products and
services available in the UK in 2021 are
making the UK more secure because
they have their default security settings
enabled by default or have security
integrated into their design; and
• all government services provided
at national, local and Devolved
Administration level are trusted by the
UK public because they have been
implemented as securely as possible,
and fraud levels are within acceptable
risk parameters.
5.3.
PROTECTING GOVERNMENT
5.3.1. The UK Government, Devolved
Administrations and the wider public sector
hold large quantities of sensitive data. They
deliver essential services to the public and
operate networks that are critical to national
security and resilience. The Government’s
systems underpin the functioning of our
society. The modernisation of public
sector services will continue to be the
cornerstone of the UK’s Digital Strategy –
the Government’s digital ambition is for the
UK to be the world’s leading digital nation.
To retain the trust of citizens in online public
sector services and systems, data held
by government must be protected and all
branches of government must implement
appropriate levels of cyber security in the
face of continuous attempts by hostile
actors to gain access to government and
public sector networks and data.
Objectives
5.3.2. We want to achieve the following
outcomes:
• citizens use government online services
with confidence: they trust that their
sensitive information is safe and, in
turn, understand their responsibility to
submit their sensitive information online
in a secure manner;
• the Government will set and adhere to
the most appropriate cyber security
standards, to ensure that all branches
of government understand and meet
their obligations to secure their
networks, data and services; and
• the Government’s critical assets,
including those at the highest
classification, are protected from
cyber attacks.
Our approach
5.3.3. The UK Government will continue to
move more of its services online so that the
UK can become truly ‘digital by default’.
The Government Digital Service (GDS),
the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) and
the NCSC will ensure that all new digital
services built or procured by government
are also ‘secure by default’.
5.3.4. The Government’s networks are
highly complex and in many cases still
incorporate legacy systems, as well as
some commercially available software
which is no longer supported by the
vendor. We will ensure that there are no
unmanaged risks from legacy systems and
unsupported software.
5.3.5. We will improve government and
wider public sector resilience to cyber
National Cyber Security Strategy 2016