UK parliament plans to lift cyber capability

The UK’s parliament plans to conduct a three-pronged initiative aimed at improving its cybersecurity capability.

Parliament is seeking a supplier for a cyber capability and culture consultancy services as the first stage of the two-year program.

As part of the Cyber Security Change Program, parliament aims to implement behavioural and cultural change to maintain its cyber capability.

The program also encompasses target operating model review and validation for delivery of this capability and a workforce management strategy for maintaining and further developing cybersecurity capable staff.

The request for information on Service.gov.uk’s Contracts Finder site states that the purpose is to “provide a greater awareness of consultancy solutions that currently exist in the market place and to enable Parliament to see if their ambitions to deliver broader cyber capability and cultural change can be supported by an external provider”.

It includes a questionnaire for interested suppliers aimed at helping gauge these capabilities.

“The soft market testing exercise will assist Parliamentary Digital Service understand the market and help shape the procurement process and assist with the definition of functional and non-functional requirements,” the request states.

Australia’s own parliament may wish to take a cue from its UK counterpart considering the hack on parliamentary email systems uncovered in February that impacted everybody with an Australian Parliament House email address.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Iakov Kalinin