The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government is working on a project with Scotland Excel to develop a singular cybersecurity framework for councils to contact Security Operations Centre (SOC) services.

Scotland Excel, the centre for procurement expertise for public sector, is set to play a vital role in the initiative.

“Cyber attacks can happen at any time, and cyber criminals often choose times when they know staff will be thin on the ground, with bank holidays being a popular target for this reason,” CISO for the Digital Office Dave Ritchie said in a blog post.

However, creating a SOC that offers year-round, 24-hour monitoring and services would be outwith the capabilities of local councils, Ritchie explained, saying that the private sector will be relied on for support.

The SOC project therefore sets out to develop a service with private sector support to create a cybersecurity team of experts to offer support with cyber-incidents for local councils.

Essential functions of the SOC will include monitoring a council’s network and systems, as well as detecting, analysing, and responding to cyber-incidents. The team will also help reporting and communicating cyber-incidents and improving overall cybersecurity.

The SOC aims to not only improve the organisation’s cybersecurity posture, but help employ better legal and regulatory compliance.

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Ritchie listed many benefits the SOC is expected to bring, including reducing downtime and disruption caused by cyber-incidents, and helping councils deliver reliable and secure digital services.

The framework will be open to councils and the wider public sector, which Ritchie envisions will foster collaboration.

“With Scotland Excel, the Digital Office will be convening a User Intelligence Group to develop the specification and take the project to the next stage,” Ritchie explained as the next steps for the project.