Cyber Scotland Week - Thanks for playing your part

We hope you found the cyber week messages interesting and useful.  It has hopefully shown how a single action can lead to disastrous consequences for an organisation and continue to cause problems over a long period before normal services are restored.

So, who is responsible for cyber security at Orkney Islands Council?  We have an Information Security Officer that provides professional advice and guidance to the organisation, an IT service that ensures that our systems are maintained and kept up to date and secure, and a management structure that acknowledges and supports the importance of good cyber security practices, but the true answer is this:

We are all responsible for cyber security at Orkney Islands Council.

We all undertake annual mandatory cyber security training, and this acts as a reminder of the importance of good practice.  There is a staff guidance document that can be referred to if you are unsure of something, and both the Information Security Officer and IT are happy to provide advice and guidance if needed.

However, as the past week's messages have shown, all of our technical defences and guidance can be defeated if we are not vigilant.  You are our first and most important line of defence in this, and you all do an excellent job for which we would like to thank you. 

Please remember that if you do think you've inadvertently clicked a link or opened an attachment you probably shouldn't have, report it to IT support immediately and let your line manager know.  There's no blame attached to this at all, and we are very grateful to you when you report mistakes.

Thomas Aldred

Service Manager (ICT)