The 2011 Government ICT Strategy aimed to improve the state of public sector IT. As part of this, the Public Services Network (PSN) was launched to join together central and local government and the wider public sector on a single “network of networks”.

The aim is to provide a more open and competitive marketplace for ICT services to be delivered to the UK public sector. This should drive increased efficiency across the public sector and to deliver savings to both operating and procurement costs.

Connecting networks, suppliers and users carries with it security issues, and this has the potential to hold back the initiative. To date there has been little in the way of clear guidelines for public sector bodies connecting to the PSN.

To fill this gap, security company McAfee, part of Intel Security, has produced a white paper with a clear set of guidelines for all public sector stakeholders connecting to the PSN to help them make tactical decisions on how to achieve compliance and become a PSN customer. This has been produced with support from colleagues across government, academia and the IT industry. It also offers guidance for suppliers to help them understand requirements so they can provide appropriate advice and support.

McAfee is offering the document exclusively to readers of Civil Service World and/or Public Technology for one week ahead of its official announcement.

The document is vendor neutral, but is accompanied by a guide offering McAfee technical solutions to PSN security challenges.