Scotland launches cyber resilience framework

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister, John Swinney MSP, has launched a new ‘Strategic Framework for a Cyber Resilient Scotland’ setting out an ambition for home-grown tech companies to take the lead in protecting government systems.

The Cyber Resilient Scotland: Strategic Framework makes clear that cyber resilience is a critical enabler to the country's digital public services and for digital inclusion.

Swinney said that Scotland needed to embed cyber resilience into the design of the government's future digital services, becoming a core element of the Digital Scotland strategy, to ensure that future digital services are trustworthy and resilient.

"Cyber resilience cannot be viewed simply as an 'IT issue'," said Swinney at the release of the framework. "It is, in fact, the very backbone to every public service."

The framework will also complement two forthcoming government digital strategies: a refreshed national Digital Strategy, due for publication in the spring, and the national AI Strategy for the use of artificial intelligence in Scotland. 

Recent cyber security incidents have demonstrated the need to be able to orchestrate a national response which can quickly mobilise the support which organisations need to detect, respond and recover from a major cyber attack. 

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with the Cabinet Office to ensure alignment of strategic aims and ambitions. The UK Government plans to produce an interim National Cyber Security Strategy later this year.