Public sector cyber conference returns this week

This week sees the return of the Think Digital Partners conference programme and we kick off with the popular and extremely topical event, Think Cybersecurity for Government. This conference is a virtual only event and begins at 10am this Thursday running through till 3.30pm.

The conference begins with a presentation from David Knight-Croft, head of cyber security policy and strategy at the Department for Health and Social Care. David will present an overview of the recently announced strategy,  seeking to put it into context how and why it was formed and what the NHS has learned over the past six years since the WannaCry attack in 2017, which was a watershed moment for health and care. 

After the keynote we move onto a panel session that focuses on ‘building the cyber workforce of the future’, against the backdrop of the public sector organisations struggling to recruit and retain qualified staff to build the resilience needed to protect infrastructure, data and citizens. Our expert speakers in this session come from the Royal Mint, the Open university and University of South Wales and our conference headline sponsor, Pionen.

The final presentation before the short mid-morning break is the first of two sessions focusing on private sector involvement in government cybersecurity.  Stuart Peters, head of the cyber resilience policy team at DCMS considers the topic of ‘Cyber Security and Managed Service Providers’, looking at the critical role they play in the modern global digital economy. We return straight after the break with a panel session looking at ‘Cyber Security in the supply chain’,with three expert speakers, Dr Budgie Dhanda MBE from PA Consulting, Dr Ric Derbyshire from Orange Cyberdefense and Tristan Morgan from the BT Group. 

Before we break for lunch there are two more insightful sessions. The first focuses the importance of the ‘Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF)’. The CAF was rolled out to all government departments last year and is the central tool that should be used to assess their resilience across a range of objectives and indicators. Nigel Wakefield, MD at Pionen states that the CAF is not just a tick box exercise and that it can provide important insight for constant learning and improvement. The final session before lunch focuses on ‘Cybercrime and supporting citizens’ affected by it, with expert analysis coming from Citizens Advice, the Police and the consumer insight brand Which?

The afternoon session begins with some heavyweight discussions on ‘Data-driven Cybersecurity’ and how we can use data to predict and detect cyber-attacks. Our speakers John Keegan, deputy director and head of digital security at DWP, James Herbert, ceo of newly launched Pivotl and Chris Crowther, cio from Spectra Analysis share their thoughts and experiences on this hot topic. Next TDP technology and strategy advisor Jessica Figueras has a fireside chat with Robert di Scchiavi, head of cyber security at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman where Robert shares some of his thoughts and experiences from his impressive career in cyber.

The conference finishes off with two sessions that consider various aspects of the people side of cyber. The first looks at ‘hybrid working’ and the challenges and opportunities that this form of working offers and then the final panel of the day discusses the increasingly significant topic of ‘Stress and Burnout in the security operation centre.’

If you haven’t registered already you can still do so here.