An automated scanning system has cut the time it takes to fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities across public sector IT systems, reducing median remediation time for general cyber vulnerabilities from 53 days to 32, and slashing DNS-specific average fix times from 50 days to eight.
The results come from the UK government’s newly launched vulnerability monitoring service (VMS), which continuously scans more than 6,000 public bodies from doctors’ offices and ambulance trusts to hospitals and the Legal Aid Agency, tracking every identified weakness until it is resolved. The service detects around 1,000 types of vulnerabilities and processes approximately 400 confirmed findings a month, the government said.
“Cyber-attacks aren’t abstract threats, they delay National Health Service appointments, disrupt essential services, and put people’s most sensitive data at risk,” said UK Minister for Digital Government Ian Murray in a statement announcing the results at the annual Government Cyber Security and Digital Resilience conference. “When public services struggle it’s families, patients and frontline workers that feel it.”
