7.2 Objective To improve the resilience and security of public sector IT systems to better protect services that our people rely upon, and their data. 7.3 Measures The Public Sector relies heavily on Information Technology to deliver practically all of the services it provides; these services therefore need to be secure, resilient and capable of ensuring that personal information remains private. To that end, Government will take the following specific initiatives; 8. The NCSC will develop a baseline security standard to be applied by all Government Departments and key agencies. The NCSC, in conjunction with the OGCIO, will formulate a minimum cyber security baseline standard for Government ICT. This will be aligned with international standards and phased in across all Government bodies, beginning with Government Departments. These standards typically include measures and controls in relation to staff training, identity and access management. It is envisaged that the standard will be audited at a local Departmental level with support and guidance provided by the NCSC. 9. The existing ‘Sensor’ Programme will be expanded to cover all Government Departments, and an assessment will be conducted as to the feasibility of expanding Sensor to cover all of Government networks. The NCSC Sensor Programme will be rolled out across all Government Departments with a view to improving the early detection and removal of threats. The NCSC will support its application across the public sector, and the Joint Security Operations Centre will be developed to support and operationalise this system. It is envisaged that every significant Government Department and Agency will be monitored by the Joint SOC managed by the NCSC. 10. A Government IT Security forum will be created, open to all Heads of IT Security across Government, to facilitate information sharing on best practice for cyber security and to allow the NCSC support the deployment of the baseline security standard. 32