Although there are some differences, in many ways the business IT and cybersecurity requirements of government are very similar to those of private sector organizations, and therefore public sector initiatives can often offer insights on tackling common challenges.

Public and private organizations both have to ensure the services are agile and innovative to remain cost effective and provide good user experiences, both have to ensure privacy for users of their services, both have to manage user access based on identity, and both have to face similar cyber security threats against business IT and operational technology (OT).

In tackling the associated challenges, public sector organizations often take the lead, providing good refence material for private sector organizations on best practices to adopt, and indeed what to avoid from lessons learned by public sector organizations.

One of the reasons that public sector organizations often lead the way is the fact that they tend to be early adopters of new and emerging technologies such as distributed deception platforms, fraud intelligence platforms, consumer identity and access management platforms, and machine monitoring systems.

Governments also tend to be leaders in the areas of digital identity, digital transformation, and cybersecurity, which is reflected in KuppingerCole Analysts research and events. Although this happening at different paces in European countries, with some countries lagging others, we are seeing that change. We expect to see more initiatives in the public sector, with those countries that have previously lagged picking up the pace.

Private sector organizations should therefore pay attention to what their public sector counterparts are doing to solve the challenges that they have in common. These public sector initiatives can be valuable in indicating future trends and best practice, and therefore should always be on the radar of private sector organizations to learn as much as they can.  

Because we understand the importance of ­­­­­­­­keeping up with technology trends, and because we are committed to helping your business succeed, KuppingerCole has a great deal of content available in a variety of formats.

This includes live events such as the 2022 KuppingerCole European Identity and Cloud (EIC) conference taking place this week in Berlin and online.

The agenda features a host of sessions looking at technology initiatives by governments around the world, including today’s keynote presentations entitled:

Tomorrow’s sessions focusing on government technology initiatives include:

The focus on public sector IT projects continues on Thursday, with presentations entitled:

Also on Thursday, there are perspectives on digital identity from around the world:

Tech Investment

As mentioned above, public sector organizations tend to be among early adopters of technologies. Learn more about the technology market segments that public sector organizations are investing by looking at these Leadership Compass reports on:

Identity is of the areas where public sector organizations are the most active. Have a look at this Market Compass on Providers of Verified Identity, which can aid in an organization’s digital transformation, as well make significant progress towards better privacy and user-centric identity management.

This Market Compass on European Hosted Hybrid IaaS Cloud provides an assessment of the capabilities provided by these services including those for the tenant to ensure their secure and compliant use of the services. The report refences Gaia-X which is a project supported by the German government to build a competitive, secure, and trustworthy data infrastructure for Europe in the cloud.

Organizations looking to invest in technologies being adopted by the public sector, can have a look at some of the relevant technology solutions that we have evaluated: 

Advisories

Looking at other countries' regulations can help you proactively prepare for upcoming regulations in your own. Therefore, have a look this Advisory Note on US Federal Regulations on Cybersecurity, which  compares Executive Order 14028, the Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive, and IT Security Act (IT-SIG) 2.0 to demonstrate the relationship between these national regulations and future developments in cybersecurity.

Leadership Brief

The Global Assured Identities Network (GAIN) proposes an identity network that would allow any global organization to utilize verified identity attributes. This work both calls for and lays the groundwork for global interoperability, and this Leadership Brief entitled: GAIN Explained is designed to help you understand what GAIN is, what use cases it serves, and who may be interested. 

Audio/video

Cybersecurity is another important area where public sector organizations are showing leadership. Listen to this Analyst Chat for a discussion on The Need For New Drivers to Improve Cybersecurity and the potential role of governments.

Staying with cybersecurity, have a look at this presentation from EIC 2021 entitled: How Denmark is Building the Cyberprotection Bridge Between the Private and Public Sectors: The National Danish Cybersecurity Council.

To explore explore governmental reform and understand stakeholder expectations behind the rollout of digital identity projects in the post-COVID era, have a look at this Frontier Talk on Reinventing Government with Technology with Sebastian Manhart, Technical Advisor on Digital Identity for the German Chancellery.

For further discussion on this topic with Sebastian Manhart to find out how some governments are implementing user-centric, decentralised, self-sovereign digital identity with the goal of providing a holistic identity solution citizens can use everywhere and across borders, have a look at this presentation from a past KC Live event entitled: Decentralized Identity and Governments - Can It Work?

Continuing the theme of identity, have a look at this panel discussion on Comparing the Different Approaches to a Global Identity Layer for Commerce, E-Health, Finance & E-Government and this presentation on Future proofing national eID.

Blogs

As mentioned above, government implementations can also serve to highlight potential pitfalls, as illustrated by this blog post in response to the German Federal Government’s announcement of its Blockchain Strategy entitled: Blockchain: It’s not About Technology, It Is About Use Cases.

Webinars

Governments world-wide are increasingly worried about the social unrest that could result from a cybersecurity compromise of critical infrastructure. This has highlighted the fact that the underlying operational technology (OT) is often inadequately protected. For a discussion about the cyber threats to OT, the need to address the issue of industrial cybersecurity, the benefits of OT security, and how to approach compliance with legislation aimed at controlling critical infrastructure, have a look at this webinar entitled: The Machine Monitoring Mandate.

Digital transformation is increasingly affecting all types of organisations including Governments. In order to encourage citizens to adopt digital services, the least expensive channel for governments, it is necessary to support modern connection methodologies and provide user-focussed services. To find out more about the challenges facing government, and the opportunity digital transformation affords, have a look at this webinar on Digital Transformation in Government.

Password-based authentication is no longer fit for purpose. Passwords are costly and difficult to manage, they result in poor user experiences, and they are easily compromised. This has been widely recognized for some time, but going passwordless is also challenging and continues to be elusive for many organizations, although some governments are already on board. To find out more, have a look at this webinar entitled:

The Path to Going Passwordless.

Whitepapers

Organizations are facing a brave new world in which governments are taking a proactive role in constraining cybersecurity risks. Companies with operational infrastructure that is deemed ‘critical’ to social stability can expect legislation to ensure they are adequately protecting their OT infrastructure, and monitoring and responding to cyber-threats and compromise events. To find out more on this topic, have a look at this Whitepaper entitled: Claroty – Visibility into Vulnerability.

Moving to the cloud sets new challenges for managing access to critical IT environments for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). SMBs may work within the defense or government sector in which case the data protection requirements are likely to be far more stringent than a small engineering firm. For more on this topic, have a look at this Whitepaper entitled: Fast Access Management in the Hybrid Cloud for SMBs