The Department has put in place an arrangement with a specialist tech consultancy that will provide expert personnel in disciplines including analysis and management of vulnerabilities, and responding to incidents

The Department for Education has bolstered its security with the award of a potential £6m-plus contract for the provision of “cyber specialists”, including experts in areas such as ethical hacking and incident response.

On 5 August, the DfE entered into an initial two-year engagement with Bristol-based security specialist Logiq Consulting. The deal will see the supplier provide a variety of “cyber specialists to support the [department’s] Cyber Security and Information Division (CISD) and the wider DfE” operation.

Featured among these external security professionals will be specialists in a number of core areas of digital and cyber, “including a range of roles such as cyber security specialists, information assurance, and DevOps”, according to the text of the contract.

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The document adds that these contractors will offer the DfE additional “skills and capabilities in areas such as, but not limited to, ethical hacking, incident management, vulnerability management, penetration testing and security analysis”.

A broader objective of the engagement is that the extra personnel will help the department in meeting the goals of programmes intended to secure infrastructure and digital services.

“These roles will work across teams within CISD to support the division in delivering its strategic objectives,” the contract says. “As programmes of work are departmentally cross-cutting, there is also likely to be a demand for these roles across the wider department to support digital services as they adopt a secure by design approach.”

Over the initial two-year term of the deal up to £5m will be spent with the provider, although there is no minimum outlay guaranteed. If an optional six-month extension is put into effect, spending could rise by a further £1.25m.