Councils are responsible for the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of their areas and deliver hundreds of essential services to local communities. They often have sizeable workforces spread across large geographic regions, working remotely and from fixed office locations. Services are often delivered in conjunction with third party suppliers, volunteer organisations and other public sector bodies such as the NHS and emergency services.

To deliver these services effectively, councils are reliant on digital technology to allow its workers and partners to collaborate and to store, process and share the vast amounts of data they are entrusted with.

The economic challenges faced by local government have been well documented, but Councils are also faced with ever increasing cyber security challenges ranging from phishing to ransomware and malware attacks, all of which can impact service delivery.

The lack of cyber skills within this sector and the use of legacy software and technology makes Councils high profile targets for attackers. Attacks can lead to disruption of services, theft of data, blackmail, and other serious criminal offences. The complexity of attacks has changed dramatically over the years causing financial and organisational disasters to councils including:

It’s often not practical for councils to build their own cyber security capability (although a general level of cyber skills is needed) due to the expense and continuous changing nature of this environment. Partnering with a trusted cybersecurity provider can help but Councils need to ensure the provider understands their specific needs and has the experience, expertise, and reputation to support them.

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Cyber Security isn’t a ‘one fix’ solution. Good security often involves cultural change and is a journey over which an organisation improves its security posture by embedding good practice into the business.

Our approach, therefore, is centred around partnership. We work with Councils to help improve their security posture and reduce cyber exposure through a trust based collaborative partnership, acting as a ‘critical friend’.

We believe that for cyber security to be effective, it must be manageable and sustainable. It also needs business involvement as it’s the business that owns the data, not IT, although IT plays a key role in facilitating the business needs through technology.

We help to identify critical assets and conduct meaningful risk assessments. Our security assessments help to establish a baseline and prioritise what needs to be done to mitigate the key risks. We then build a roadmap to improve the security posture of the Council.

To protect against cyber-attacks, Councils need to understand how threat actors work and where they could enter IT networks. We use breach and attack simulations to train staff, highlight weaknesses in security controls, develop response times and the best methods to manage such events. Simulations also highlight gaps in internal response processes, particularly when personally identifiable data is at stake.

Without sustained and regular updates, Council IT systems can become vulnerable to attacks such as ransomware or can grant easy, back door access to the rest of the IT system. Older IT systems tend to lack the latest security protections and controls, which can become a huge problem in three ways:

Any information system that doesn’t get regular updates can be low-hanging fruit for threat actors but knowing the state of IT systems and software can be challenging.

To combat this, we provide ongoing penetration tests, PSN IT Health Checks and vulnerability assessments to identify security weaknesses that could be exploited by an attacker. We support IT teams to understand and manage these risks by working with them to explain findings and recommendations.

Councils operate large operational technology estates including building management systems, CCTV and public Wifi. Our cyber team can assess these systems for security vulnerabilities that could potentially be exploited by attackers to gain access to Council networks and data or to disrupt this technology causing distress to the public.

Aristi is an established and trusted provider of cyber security services with over 15 years of proven success in delivering innovative and cost-effective solutions to both public and private sectors. We deliver what we promise and build long-term partnerships with our clients, many of whom have been with us since the business was established in 2008.

We have a long history of supporting the public sector, working with some of the largest government departments and local councils across the UK.

50% of our senior management team come from local government which helps us understand the challenges within this sector.

We also support emergency services across the UK including national Home Office led projects where we act as independent security advisors.

Our team of experienced cyber specialists combine the highest calibre of expertise and client care to strengthen cyber defences across your entire organisation. We provide a range of services from cyber security testing to governance and compliance consultancy.

Our commitment to provide the highest quality of service is evidenced by our credentials: we are a CREST accredited and NCSC CHECK Assured provider of Penetration Testing services. Our business is certified against ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus. We are also a Cyber Essentials certification body.

Our consultants all hold NPPV3 and SC clearances.