Cabinet Office: Improving UK Cyber Security

How might we drive behaviour change around the nation’s internet security?

Future-proof Innovation | Market Foresight | Inspirational Insight

The UK is 5th in global cybersecurity rankings

The Challenge

Online fraud costs UK taxpayers billions each year. The Prime Minister pledged to reduce it. The Cabinet Office was set to embark on a behaviour change campaign.

Consumers do things they’re ashamed of. Banks and other companies don’t want to talk about the size of the problem. First, they had to understand the fundamental issues around a subject with its taboos and secrets.

The Outcomes

Working with Sensers from across the country, with varying degrees of technical ability, we established that when it comes to financial security, citizens don’t believe their money is at risk. They think fraud is refunded (and they’re right). But they do care about reputation. Once that’s lost, you don’t get it back. So use reputation as a proxy for money.

A ‘five simple steps’ recommendation was developed for helping businesses maintain cybersecurity. This was adopted by the Government and rolled out by M&C Saatchi.

The Result

These recommendations were launched by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), as part of a 5-year initiative to improve the UK’s online security credentials. The UK ranks fifth in global cybersecurity rankings published by ABI Research and ITU. If you can’t be good, be careful.

Our Approach

To understand what the government was up against we needed frank and honest insight into the behaviors of consumers and businesses alike. In the initial phase, we would gather data that could be translated into actionable output.

How The Sense Network Helped

Working with a professional hacker, a spy and business leaders we established low effort actions that could make a material impact on cybersecurity.

The next step was to bring together senior civil servants, intelligence officers, usability experts and consumers to help form an action plan for the government.

How might we uncover the insight that reframes your challenge?