The Government Digital Service (GDS) has signed an agreement with cybersecurity consulting firm Fidus Information Security to perform ongoing IT health checks for its digital identity programme.
PublicTechnology.net, which first reported the news, said the two-year contract is potentially worth £300,000 contract. The £100,000-a-year deal can be extended for two further periods of six months each, which would take its end date to summer 2025.
Fidus’ website says it has clients across education, government and healthcare. It explains that an IT health check (ITHC) is used to confirm that information systems and networks meet a specified baseline standard. Also known as Codes of Connection (CoCo), these rules are used by organisations like the NHS and the Gambling Commission to ensure only trusted partners are able to exchange data online.
“The ITHC provides assurance to your partners that internal and external systems are protected from unauthorised access,” it says. “This includes wireless access points which connect to the internal network and remote working devices, such as company smartphones. You will need to complete an ITHC once per year – or risk losing access to these trusted resources, such as the NHS Public Service Network (PSN).
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Public Technology notes that the Cambridge-based firm will be asked “to conduct various IT health checks for [the GDS] digital identity programme over the contract duration”, according to a recently published procurement notice.
While the nature of these checks is redacted, the document says that there “will be additional deliverables… for future IT health checks for digital identity programme during the contract period”.
GDS is currently in the process of rolling out the One Login system, which is designed to provide a single identity-verification and sign-on system through which citizens can access all government services across all departments.
The department says it is “weeks away” from launching its first end-to-end authentication and identity platform. The Disclosure and Barring Service will soon be the first to use the new One Login digital identity service.
