Sector · Public sector

Industry · Public sector

Supply chain evidence for the departments and agencies the public depends on.

Cyb3r Operations gives UK central government, local government, and arm's-length bodies continuous third-party evidence aligned to NCSC CAF, GovAssure, and the Government Cyber Security Strategy.

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From the field

“Our GovAssure review needed CAF A.4 evidence across 280 suppliers. The platform produced it in two days. The alternative was three months of questionnaires.”

Departmental SIRO · UK Central Government Department

What the public sector supplier estate looks like

200 to 500

critical suppliers at a typical NHS Trust

300 to 800

critical suppliers at a UK central government department

4 to 6

shared service providers driving cross-department concentration risk

The problem

Government supply chains carry the same risk as financial services without the same budget.

Central government departments, local authorities, and NHS trusts run sprawling third-party estates. They face the same regulatory expectations as private-sector regulated firms, with smaller teams and less commercial leverage over suppliers.

GovAssure raised the bar. CAF A.4 (Supply Chain) is now in scope across central government. Local authorities and NHS trusts face their own variants. The traditional TPRM operating model, supplier questionnaires plus annual reviews, cannot keep up.

Today's reality

·GovAssure raises CAF expectations across central government
·Local councils and NHS trusts increasingly targeted by ransomware via suppliers
·Shared service providers create concentration risk across departments
·Smaller teams running larger supplier estates than private-sector equivalents

Supply chain shape

What a public-sector body's supplier estate actually looks like.

Mix of major SI providers, cloud, citizen-service apps, and specialist sector platforms.

Major systems integrators

Large SI providers running core IT and transformation programmes. Often the largest single point of failure.

Capita
Atos
Fujitsu
Accenture

Cloud infrastructure

G-Cloud and direct cloud relationships. Concentration with a small number of providers common.

AWS
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud

Citizen-service platforms

Direct citizen-facing services (benefits, licensing, identity) often built on third-party platforms.

GOV.UK Verify partners
Citizen identity providers

Data processors

Specialist data processors handling regulated citizen data with elevated risk.

Health data providers
Education data systems

Specialist sector platforms

Sector-specific platforms (NHS clinical systems, local authority case management, defence-tech).

NHS EHR vendors
Council case mgmt
Defence SaaS

Shared service providers

Government-wide shared services (HR, finance, security operations) creating cross-department concentration.

Shared Services Connected
GSi
Crown Hosting

Threat landscape

Who is targeting the public sector right now.

State-sponsored, ransomware crews focused on councils and NHS, and supply-chain pivots.

APT28, APT29, APT41

State-sponsored

Persistent targeting of central government departments and defence-related supply chains.

Lockbit, BlackBasta (council campaigns)

Targeted ransomware

Recurring ransomware campaigns against UK and EU local authorities, often via tier-2 supplier ingress.

NHS-targeting ransomware

Sector-specific

NHS Trusts and their critical suppliers (e.g. Synnovis 2024) repeatedly hit through supply chain ingress.

Hacktivist groups

Politically motivated

Coordinated targeting of public-facing government services around geopolitical events.

Citizen-data exfiltration

Recurring pattern

Targeted exfiltration of large citizen-data sets via compromised third-party processors.

Disinformation and influence

State-sponsored

Influence operations targeting government communications and the suppliers that handle them.

What changes

What public-sector teams get from Cyb3r Operations.

GovAssure-ready CAF evidence.

CAF objectives A.4 and B.4 evidenced continuously, with auditor-ready packs on demand.

Shared-service concentration visibility.

Surface where multiple departments or councils depend on the same tier-2 provider.

Smaller teams, larger coverage.

Continuous outside-in evidence covers the long tail without needing supplier outreach.

Defend-as-one alignment.

Cross-departmental visibility supports the Government Cyber Security Strategy's shared-defence model.

Council and NHS Trust readiness.

Tailored expectations for local government and NHS Trust supplier risk patterns.

Citizen-data exposure visibility.

Surface where citizen-data flows traverse suppliers and where exposure is concentrated.

Regulatory map

Rules of the road for the public sector.

Government cyber expectations plus sector-specific requirements.

Regulator

Jurisdiction

Obligation

What Cyb3r Operations evidences

Regulator

GovAssure (CAF-based)

Jurisdiction

UK central government

Obligation

Mandatory independent CAF-based assurance for central government departments.

What we evidence

Continuous CAF A.4 and B.4 evidence with auditor-scoped access.

Regulator

Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022 to 2030

Jurisdiction

Obligation

Defend-as-one: cross-government supplier visibility and shared defence.

What we evidence

Cross-departmental concentration visibility and shared-service evidence.

Regulator

NIS2

Jurisdiction

EU public sector

Obligation

Supply chain security obligations applicable to public administration in many member states.

What we evidence

Article 21-aligned continuous third-party evidence.

Regulator

NHS DSPT

Jurisdiction

UK NHS

Obligation

Data Security and Protection Toolkit expectations across NHS organisations and partners.

What we evidence

DSPT supplier evidence mapped per assertion.

Regulator

G-Cloud framework expectations

Jurisdiction

UK procurement

Obligation

Embedded cyber, resilience, and supply-chain expectations for G-Cloud listed services.

What we evidence

Supplier evidence aligned to framework requirements.

Regulator

Cabinet Office Minimum Cyber Security Standard

Jurisdiction

UK central government

Obligation

Baseline cyber expectations across central government and arm's-length bodies.

What we evidence

Continuous evidence aligned to MCSS supplier expectations.

Sector scenarios

What this looks like in practice for the public sector.

Three short stories from the field, each anchored to a platform capability.

Scenario 01

GovAssure CAF A.4 evidence in two days

A central government department's GovAssure review needed CAF A.4 (Supply Chain) evidence across 280 suppliers in three weeks. The platform produced a per-supplier evidence pack mapped to CAF objectives in two days.

See the GRC persona page

Scenario 02

NHS Trust EHR supplier breach response

When a NHS Trust's EHR provider disclosed a breach, the trust's Head of Information Governance already had the exposure picture from a previous dark-web alert. Patient-data exposure was scoped before the formal disclosure email arrived.

See the Breach Early Warning use case

Scenario 03

Cross-departmental concentration mapping

A central government cyber team identified one shared service provider sitting behind four departmental critical services. The defend-as-one supplier evidence let the team coordinate cross-government response before any event.

See the Nth-Tier Dependencies use case

The public sector buying centre

The roles that lead this in the sector.

Each persona reads the third-party picture slightly differently. Click through to the role-specific page for the full operating-model framing.

Departmental CISO / SIRO

Generates GovAssure-ready CAF evidence with smaller teams and lower budgets.

Open the Departmental CISO / SIRO page

Head of GRC

Continuous evidence covers the long tail across the department's third-party estate.

Open the Head of GRC page

Chief Risk Officer

Cross-departmental concentration risk visible for defend-as-one alignment.

Open the Chief Risk Officer page

Sector questions

Questions public-sector teams ask in the first conversation.

Cyb3r Operations is built to UK central government cyber standards and aligned to G-Cloud framework expectations. Procurement teams have a clear path forward.

CAF objectives A.4 (Supply Chain) and B.4 (System Security) have built-in mappings. Evidence is timestamped, framework-aligned, and ready for independent CAF assessors.

The platform supports cross-departmental views where the strategy requires shared visibility (e.g. shared service provider concentration). Data segregation and information classification are handled appropriately.

DSPT assertion-level evidence is mapped per supplier. The platform addresses the NHS-specific supplier risk profile, including EHR vendors and medical devices.

Outside-in evidence does not require local authority cyber teams to do supplier outreach. The platform covers the long tail with the team you already have.

Data-class inference surfaces where citizen data flows traverse suppliers. Exposure mapping covers personal, special-category, and regulated data classes.