Consultation outcome

Proposed changes to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Detail of outcome

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) conducted a consultation on how the proposed changes to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, as laid out in the consultation document, would impact users. DCMS also wanted to understand what data in the current Cyber Security Breaches Survey respondents used, how frequently it is used and how any potential changes would impact on this usage.

The four options for how to proceed with Cyber Security Breaches Survey from 2021 as stated in the consultation were:

  1. Retain the Cyber Security Breaches Survey in its current format (including an annual update to the questions to meet user needs)

  2. Retain the Cyber Security Breaches Survey in its current format and introduce a separate longitudinal large business survey to try to identify causal links between organisational behaviours and breaches

  3. Retain the Cyber Security Breaches Survey and incorporate an additional longitudinal element to the study to try to identify causal links between organisational behaviours and breaches

  4. Discontinue the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, to be replaced by a longitudinal survey or other survey measures.

The public consultation ran from 28th January 2020 to 23rd March 2020.

Consultation response

Following the feedback received, DCMS will retain the Cyber Security Breaches Survey in its current format. When designing and constructing the survey in future, DCMS will continue to engage with the sector to incorporate and revise the question areas highlighted by respondents in this consultation. We will continue to explore the feasibility of introducing a separate longitudinal business survey to identify causal links between organisational behaviours and breaches.

Detail of feedback received

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport received 17 responses to the consultation. Responses were received from government departments and agencies, academia, professional bodies and industry. The feedback summary attached has been structured to reflect the headings under which views were sought in the consultation. The summary includes feedback on:

  • Current usage of the Cyber Security Breaches Survey
  • Most used areas of the survey
  • Future cyber security breaches survey, questions and topic coverage
  • Future topic areas for inclusion in the survey
  • Feedback on the proposed longitudinal survey
  • Additional points raised by respondents during the consultation

Please see the attached documents for full details.


Original consultation

Summary

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is consulting on the Cyber Security Breaches Survey (CSBS) publication.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

DCMS are considering how the Cyber Security Breaches Survey should continue in future and are keen to understand how any changes made to the CSBS official statistics would impact users. This consultation seeks feedback on what information is used and how frequently, as well as how any potential changes would impact on this usage.

Please see the Consultation: Cyber Security Breaches Survey document for more information on potential changes to the survey, as well as more detailed information about this consultation.

How to respond

DCMS invites users to respond to a number of specific questions relating to the statistical series and encourage users to respond to these questions by completing the online questionnaire available here.

Please note that responses should be received by 23:59 on 23 March 2020. We also welcome comments on any other aspect of the series, including the presentation or analysis. If you would prefer, you can also respond to this consultation via email at cyber.survey@culture.gov.uk

Documents

Published 28 January 2020
Last updated 27 May 2020 + show all updates
  1. Published the Government response and outcome to the consultation.

  2. First published.