Managing Cyber Risk in Social Care: Practical Controls That Protect Services and People
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Cyber risk management in adult social care focuses on identifying where digital systems could fail or be compromised and putting proportionate controls in place to protect people and services. It is not about eliminating all risk, but about understanding and managing it effectively.
As digital dependency grows, cyber risk management increasingly links with business continuity in tenders and safeguarding in tenders, reflecting the direct impact cyber incidents can have on care quality and safety.
Identifying Cyber Risks in Care Delivery
Effective risk management starts with understanding how digital systems are used in everyday practice. Providers should identify which systems are critical to care delivery and what would happen if they were unavailable.
Common cyber risks in social care include unauthorised access to care records, system outages affecting medication administration, phishing attacks targeting staff and failures in third-party platforms.
Risk identification should involve operational managers and frontline staff, ensuring assessments reflect real practice rather than theoretical threats.
Assessing Impact and Likelihood
Once risks are identified, providers should assess both likelihood and impact. This helps prioritise controls and resources.
For example, a brief system outage may have limited impact in some settings, while loss of medication records or visit schedules could create immediate safeguarding risks.
Commissioners expect providers to demonstrate that cyber risks are assessed proportionately and reviewed regularly, particularly when services or systems change.
Implementing Practical Controls
Cyber risk controls should be practical and embedded into daily operations. These often include strong access controls, regular system updates, secure backups and staff awareness training.
Providers should also ensure that controls are understood and followed in practice. For example, password policies and data access rules must be reinforced through supervision and audits.
Overly complex controls that staff do not understand or follow can increase risk rather than reduce it.
Monitoring and Reviewing Cyber Risk
Cyber risk management is an ongoing process. Providers should regularly review incidents, near misses and changes in threat levels.
Monitoring activity may include reviewing audit findings, tracking incidents and testing response procedures through exercises or simulations.
Learning from incidents should result in updated risk assessments and improved controls, demonstrating active management rather than static compliance.
Assuring Commissioners and Inspectors
Commissioners and inspectors increasingly expect clear evidence of cyber risk management. Providers should be able to show how risks are identified, controlled and reviewed.
This includes demonstrating links between cyber risk management, safeguarding processes and business continuity planning.
Strong cyber risk management reassures stakeholders that digital systems support safe care rather than introducing unmanaged risk.
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