Dr Harjinder Singh Lallie, discipline group leader in cyber security at the University of Warwick, said: “Cyber security is sometimes considered a ‘nice to have’ within many public sector organisations. This can lead to this provision being placed at the forefront of spending cuts. However, reducing funding to cyber security, particularly shedding staff, can have catastrophic short-term impacts leading to services becoming hopelessly exposed to business threatening cyber-attacks. The cost of recovering from the attacks far outweighs the savings made in provisioning spending cuts. The huge number of legacy systems within the public sector departments makes the ring-fencing of cyber security provision more imperative.

“If there is one area of a business that must remain ring-fenced from cuts to provision, it is cyber security.

“Cyber security in the public sector needs more than ring-fencing if we are to protect our public services. We need a more revolutionary approach to recruiting and keeping staff in the face of eye-watering opportunities in the private sector”.