£210 Million for Government Cyber Security. Good. But Let's Talk About What Actually Matters.

So the government's put £210 million on the table for cyber security.

And yeah, that's good news. It really is. When you work in tech media like we do, you hear about breaches and attacks constantly. It's become background noise. Another ransomware story. Another supply chain compromise. Another local council's systems down for weeks.

But this feels different.

The Reality for UK Businesses

Here's the thing. We work with tech companies every single day at Disruptive LIVE. MSPs, vendors, distributors, resellers - the whole channel ecosystem. And the reality is that 59% of organisations got hit by supply chain attacks last year. That's not a small number. That's not a rounding error. That's more than half of all businesses dealing with something they probably weren't prepared for.

So when I see a proper investment like this, my first thought isn't "oh good, the government's doing something." My first thought is: okay, what does this actually mean for the businesses we work with? What changes on Monday morning?

Because announcements are easy. Implementation is hard.

What's Actually in the Plan

What I genuinely like about this plan - and I've read through the GOV.UK announcement properly - is that it's not just throwing money at the problem and hoping for the best.

There's structure here.

A new Government Cyber Unit to coordinate everything centrally. Faster response times when things go wrong. Clearer visibility of risks across departments. These aren't buzzwords. These are the boring, practical things that actually make a difference when you're in the middle of an incident and need help.

They've also got Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Sage, Santander, and NCC Group signed up as Software Security Ambassadors. That's proper industry involvement. That's people who understand how this stuff works in the real world, not just in policy documents.

That matters. It really does.

The Questions I'm Still Asking

But - and there's always a but, isn't there? - I've got some questions.

The Software Security Code of Practice is voluntary right now. And look, I get why. You can't force everyone overnight. You'd have chaos. Small businesses would panic. Compliance teams would implode. I understand the pragmatic approach.

But if we're serious about this - properly serious - we need to make it easy for smaller businesses to get involved too.

Small Business Reality Check

Not everyone has a dedicated security team. Most of the companies we work with are running lean. Really lean. The marketing person is also doing half the IT. The finance director is approving software purchases based on a quick Google search and a prayer.

They need practical guidance. Not 47-page compliance documents written by committee. Not frameworks that require a consultant to interpret. Actual, usable guidance.

What Would Actually Help

Clear, simple steps. Templates. Checklists. The kind of stuff you can actually action on a Tuesday morning without hiring someone first.

Here's what a small business owner needs to know: What are the three things I should do this week? Not the thirty things I should do this year. The three things. Now. Today.

That's how you get adoption. That's how you actually move the needle on security across the whole economy, not just the enterprises who can afford dedicated teams.

The £45 Billion Question

The £45 billion productivity savings figure caught my attention.

That's what they reckon proper digitisation could deliver across the public sector. Forty-five billion. It's a big number. Almost too big to mean anything, if I'm honest.

But here's the bit that doesn't get talked about enough - that only happens if people trust these systems.

Trust Is Everything

Think about it. Every time there's a breach, every time someone's data gets leaked, every time a council website goes down and people can't access services - trust erodes. Just a little bit. But it adds up.

And once trust is gone, it's really hard to get back.

You can have the most brilliant digital services in the world. The most efficient systems. The most seamless user experience. But if people don't trust that their data is safe, they won't use it. They'll find workarounds. They'll call the phone line. They'll go back to paper.

So this investment isn't just about security. It's about building the foundation for everything else the government wants to do digitally.

What Happens Next

I'll be watching what happens with the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill too.

It had its second reading in Parliament the same day this was announced. That's not a coincidence. The funding and the legislation are meant to work together.

What I want to see is proper accountability. Not just for government departments, but across the supply chain. Because attacks don't respect organisational boundaries. They come in through the weakest link, wherever that happens to be.

If a contractor gets compromised and that compromises a government system, who's responsible? Who fixes it? Who pays for it? These are the messy questions that need clear answers.

The Bottom Line

So yeah. Good start.

Proper funding. Industry partners involved. A coordinated approach instead of everyone doing their own thing.

Let's see how it rolls out. Let's see if the guidance that comes out is actually usable by normal businesses. Let's see if the voluntary code gets adopted or ignored. Let's see if this makes a real difference to the 59% who got hit last year.

I'm cautiously optimistic. Which, for anyone who knows me, is about as enthusiastic as I get about government policy.

What do you think - does this change anything for how you're approaching security this year? I'd genuinely love to know.