`Complex` PSN faces uncertain future

The Government Digital Service (GDS) – which is leading the digital transformation of the Government – has hinted that the much-heralded Public Services Network (PSN) has no long-term future.

For the past few years most government and wider public sector services, including a number of emergency services, have relied on the ‘high-performance’ PSN to provide a secure connection that enables them to work together, reduce duplication and share resources.

But in a recent blogpost, James Stewart, director of technical architecture and head of technology at the GDS, said that at a recent meeting of the Government’s Technology Leaders Network “it was clear that everyone agreed we could just use the internet.”

“For the vast majority of the work that the public sector does, the internet is OK,” said Mr Stewart.

“As we move more and more of our systems to public cloud services the expectation that we’ll communicate over the PSN can cause confusion and adds complexity for public sector organisations and our suppliers.”

He said appropriate security measures would need to be deployed, but as that increasingly needs to be done even when services are on the PSN, it “opens up the question of whether the extra layer of complexity is really helpful”.

“So that means we’re on a journey away from the PSN,” said Mr Stewart.

“Of course, it’s not going to happen immediately. Organisations that need to access services that are only available on the PSN will still need to connect to it for the time being. They’ll need to continue to meet its assurance requirements, and in fact they should make use of the practices that covers when reviewing all their core IT.”

He said new services should be made available on the internet and “secured appropriately using the best available standards-based approaches”. When services are updated or changed the opportunity should be taken to move them to the internet.

Mr Stewart admits there is “quite a bit of work to do” across the public sector to prepare for any changes and they are “not quite ready to provide a full timeline”.

He said Mark Smith, head of the PSN, had been working with data scientists in the GDS and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to prototype other ways of providing assurance data that will help organisations establish trust.

“GDS, NCSC and Crown Commercial Service will be working together to ensure that as we update the ways in which we buy network services we have the widest possible range of suppliers and the right options to make sure we get the highest quality connections,” added Mr Stewart.

“We’ll be working with the Tech Leaders Network and the wider PSN community to ensure that common issues are clearly identified and that wherever possible we work together to provide common solutions.

“We’ll also be working with colleagues in the Cyber and Government Security Directorate and others across the public sector to make sure that we are able to collaborate on upgrading older systems that need new protections and share good practices. That’s a clear part of the national cyber security strategy and this move just adds some more focus to plans already underway.”