Scottish local councils are set to benefit from the launch of a collaborative security operations centre tender to boost cyber defences.
Scotland Excel – the local government procurement body – has issued a procurement framework which all 32 councils across the country will be eligible to join, in a bid to strengthen their online security postures.
The £13 million procurement exercise is launched in cooperation with the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government – the digital transformation partner for local councils.
A prior information notice (PIN), issued last week, reads: “We are looking for a partner(s) who can help implement and monitor a managed security operations centre solution(s), and respond to security events as they arise. This solution will be a common platform to provide visibility of security events from multiple sources in both the cloud and on-premises environment of the contracting local authority.
“The service will also provide a 24/7/365 monitoring of the platform and will take agreed upon delegated actions within agreed SLAs [Service Level Agreements] based on the categorisation of the security event.”
The solution will provide a ‘common platform to enable and simplify councils and associate members of Scotland Excel with a sound security cloud-based system’, the notice added.
The desired benefits specified in the procurement document include:
- – Offering a security solution available to all Scottish councils and potentially other Scottish public sector organisations.
- – Help to simplify and accelerate the move to a standard system throughout the councils of Scotland.
- – Offering financial economies and operational efficiencies.
- – Consistent use of data and sources to help monitor and improve security services across all councils.
- – Develop a sector wide standard for security solutions.
- – Increase the security skills of public sector staff and allow the development of a community of interest with a common platform and language.
- – Share skills and learning among the community of interest who adopt the solution.
Last year, Dave Ritchie, Chief Information Security Officer at the Digital Office, wrote a blog post about the launch of the procurement framework.
He wrote: “Cyber security is a vital aspect of any organisation’s digital transformation. It ensures that the data, systems, and services that we rely on are protected from malicious attacks and unauthorised access. However, cyber security is not a static or one-off task. It requires constant monitoring, analysis, and response to the evolving threats and challenges that we face in the digital world.
“That is why the Digital Office has been working on a project with Scotland Excel to develop a single supplier framework for councils to call off for Security Operations Centre (SOC) services. Scotland Excel, the Centre of Procurement Expertise for the local government sector, plays a critical role in this initiative by leveraging its expertise in procurement to ensure the best value and most effective solutions for councils. A SOC is one of the best ways that an organisation can increase their cyber security. 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.
“A SOC provides 24x7x365 monitoring of council systems and can take actions when certain types of incident are seen or escalate to chosen points of contact. Developing this kind of service in-house, with round-the-clock monitoring and specially trained staff would be beyond the reach of a council, so using the private sector to provide this service is the best way to make vital services available to councils.”