Cyber Resilience, Data Protection & Citizen Trust – 7 October

Ransomware attacks on local government aren't a distant threat — they've already crippled council services, exposed citizen data, and forced painful, public recoveries. This panel goes straight to the source, bringing together national cyber leadership and a CISO who has lived through a real attack to share hard-won lessons on rapid recovery and protecting vulnerable local government endpoints.

• What actually happens in the critical first hours of a major local authority cyber incident
• Real recovery lessons from a council that successfully navigated attack and restoration
• How the LGA is helping local government build cyber resilience across councils of every size
• What tier-one cyber vendors are seeing as the fastest-growing threats to public sector endpoints

Resilience, honesty, and preparedness define this opening session. Join us to explore how local government can learn from real attacks to build defences strong enough for the next one.

When an algorithm helps decide who gets housing support, benefits, or planning permission, fairness isn't optional — it's foundational to public trust in government itself. This panel brings together policy, academic, and governance expertise to examine how bias creeps into algorithmic decision-making, and what safeguards are needed to keep AI-assisted decisions accountable, transparent, and fair.

• Where algorithmic bias most commonly enters decisions on benefits, housing, and planning applications
• What DSIT's Responsible Technology Adoption Unit sees as the biggest emerging risks in public sector AI
• How the CDDO is shaping national standards for ethical, accountable algorithmic decision-making
• Academic and consultancy perspectives on building governance frameworks that actually hold up in practice

Fairness, transparency, and public trust sit at the centre of this discussion. Join us to explore how government can deploy algorithmic decision-making without ever compromising on accountability.

Every SaaS vendor, contractor, and third-party platform connected to public sector systems is a potential way in for attackers — and government now relies on thousands of them. This panel tackles one of the most underappreciated cyber risks in the public sector: the vast, fast-growing GovTech supply chain feeding directly into critical national infrastructure.

• Why third-party vendors represent one of government's largest and least visible attack surfaces
• How the Cabinet Office is tightening commercial standards to catch risk before vendors ever connect
• NHS England's perspective on enforcing cybersecurity standards across a uniquely complex supply chain
• What proactive supply chain risk management looks like when scaled across thousands of vendors

Vigilance, scrutiny, and control run through this whole discussion. Join us to explore how the public sector can work with GovTech partners without leaving the back door open.

A national digital ID system only works if citizens actually trust it enough to use it — and that trust can't come at the expense of the people least able to access it. This panel explores the dual challenge of overcoming public scepticism toward digital identity while ensuring accessibility for vulnerable and digitally excluded groups.

• What it will take to build genuine public confidence in a national digital ID system
• How GDS's One Login programme is balancing security, usability, and adoption at national scale
• Citizens Advice's frontline view on where digital services still fail the citizens who need them most
• Practical strategies for digital inclusion among citizens who are offline, elderly, or digitally excluded

Access, trust, and dignity sit at the heart of this closing session. Join us to explore how government can build digital identity that works for every citizen, not just the digitally confident.