Public Sector Cyber Security Scotland 2026

In today’s climate of evolving and highly sophisticated cyber threats, Scotland’s public sector faces a dual challenge: securing critical infrastructure while meeting growing public expectations for seamless digital services.

This session will explore how we move beyond compliance to embed true cyber resilience - building the ability to prevent, withstand, and recover from attacks.

Our speakers will delve into:

• Augmenting skills and resources to strengthen cyber defenses
• Collaboration and partnership working
• The growing importance of Cyber Resilience Auditing / cyber assessment frameworks
• Leveraging Capability at Scale
• What happens after a data leak

For three years, we’ve discussed the "amazing and scary" potential of AI. However, a harsh reality has set in - departments are being mandated to "enable AI" and drive digital transformation before they have organised the decades of legacy data those systems will feed upon. This misalignment is now the single biggest threat to data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and the viability of public service innovation. This masterclass moves past the hype to address the essential preface to any public sector AI strategy: robust data organisation. We will explore the four pillars of data readiness and the shift towards a unified, data-centric security posture, ensuring your departmental foundation is secure and compliant before enabling AI at scale.

(please note that each masterclass will run twice, allowing delegates to attend two from 11:30 - 12:00 and 12:05 - 12:35)

Join Tanium as we unpack the challenges of balancing people, process, and technology for resilience, innovation and growth in a world that requires us to utilise AI and automation across IT.

(please note that each masterclass will run twice, allowing delegates to attend two from 11:30 - 12:00 and 12:05 - 12:35)

This session provides a practical, scenario-driven demonstration of how ransomware attacks rely on lateral movement to succeed and how Akamai Guardicore segmentation can stop them.
Through a live demo, participants will see the real impact of an attack on running applications, comparing an environment with no segmentation to one protected by segmentation. The focus is on limiting blast radius, preventing attacker progression, and ensuring a local compromise does not become a full-scale incident.

Key Learning Objectives:
● Understand why lateral movement is critical to ransomware success
● See how segmentation limits attacker reach and reduces blast radius
● Learn how application-centric visibility enables effective security policy design
● Discover how proactive controls change the outcome of a ransomware attack

(please note that each masterclass will run twice, allowing delegates to attend two from 11:30 - 12:00 and 12:05 - 12:35)

As cyber threats grow in scale and complexity, traditional security approaches can struggle to keep up.

This session will focus on how public sector organisations are deploying artificial intelligence to strengthen threat detection and response, while addressing common challenges such as budget pressures, skills gaps, and operational constraints.

We will delve into the realities of implementing AI in public sector environments, including ethical considerations, procurement, and the need for operational transparency and trust.

In today’s threat landscape, it’s no longer a matter of if an incident will occur, but when. Building cyber resilience means having both the right architecture and the right people prepared to respond.

This session explores how organisations can prepare for attacks through structured training, cyber incident exercising, and incident response planning, alongside implementing Zero Trust principles.

Attendees will gain practical strategies to enhance readiness, limit damage, and maintain service continuity during cyber incidents.

Discover how Forestry and Land Scotland’s migration from an on-prem data center to public cloud preserved critical legacy systems, strengthened security posture, and created a solid foundation for future transformation.
This case study explores real challenges, practical solutions, and the benefits of a cloud-first strategy.

As cyber threats become more frequent and sophisticated, public sector organisations across Scotland must stay ahead.

This session will explore how we can enhance cyber resilience and prepare for what lies ahead.

Our expert speakers will discuss:

• The next steps in strengthening Scotland’s public sector cyber security - from foundational resilience to proactive threat management
• Forward-looking strategies for procurement, ensuring security is embedded from the outset
• How public sector organisations can harness innovation and collaborate with the private sector more effectively