Issue - meetings

(The Chair agreed that this report could be considered at the meeting under the provisions of Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 as a matter of urgency in order to avoid any delay in the procurement of IT cyber security software.)

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core Services introduced a report on a proposal to procure additional cyber security software from the Council’s current provider in order to further strengthen the Council’s resilience to potential attacks on its IT system. 

The Cabinet Member advised that the new Darktrace Respond product would complement the Darktrace Detect product that the Council procured in 2021 and would significantly improve the overall threat detection and response time to mere seconds, as opposed to hours or days.  The Cabinet Member stressed the importance of the Council taking all possible measures to protect its IT services from cyber attacks, both in terms of maintaining service provision and avoiding the substantial costs that are often associated with such attacks, citing the cyber breach at Hackney Council in 2020 which was estimated to have cost in excess of £10m to remedy.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree that the Council proceeds with the procurement of Darktrace Detect and Respond products from Softcat Ltd on the Kent Commercial Services Software Products and Associated Services Framework for a term of four years and three months, in accordance with the strategy set out in the report; and

(ii)  Delegate authority to the Strategic Director, Finance and Investment, in consultation with the Chief Legal Officer, to award and enter into any contract(s) and agreement(s) with the chosen supplier in accordance with the strategy set out in the report.