Cyber Resilience Must Start With Visibility

Uploaded on 2025-07-04 in TECHNOLOGY--Resilience, FREE TO VIEW

The UK’s digital infrastructure is facing increasing pressure. From health services to local councils, critical public systems are frequent targets for cyber attackers. To address this growing risk, the government recently introduced the draft Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, a major step toward embedding resilience into the fabric of national infrastructure.

Once passed, the Bill will give regulators greater authority to set and enforce cybersecurity standards across the sectors they oversee. It also introduces stricter incident reporting rules, alongside more flexible regulatory powers that allow the government to adapt requirements in response to new and emerging threats.

But true resilience can’t be legislated alone. It requires sustained operational action – from modernising infrastructure and adopting real-time visibility tools to building a culture of preparedness. Now is the time for leaders to act decisively, with smart technology and integrated platforms that make resilience real.

Visibility Is The Foundation Of Resilience

Without real-time insight into IT assets and activity, organisations are left guessing about what’s connected, what’s misconfigured, what’s vulnerable and how well their defences are holding up. This lack of visibility is not only risky, but also no longer sustainable and under the new Bill, it’s not acceptable either

It doesn’t matter which organisation you work for – private, public, not for profit - real-time visibility and control must become the new standard for cyber resilience. Why? Because modern threats don’t wait for audits. Attackers are constantly on the lookout for ways to exploit misconfigurations, unpatched systems and overlooked endpoints.

If organisations don’t have a live picture of their digital environment, then they are already vulnerable.

But visibility is just the starting point. To comply with the spirit of the new Bill – and not just the letter – organisations must embed continuous control and automation into their operational workflows. That means being able to act instantly when a risk is identified, not in hours or days. It also means having the capability to scale their response across every endpoint, no matter where it sits, whether that’s in the cloud, on the network or at the edge.

From Blind Spots To Liabilities

The pressure to modernise cybersecurity is rising across sectors. From public agencies to private enterprises, the ability to deliver essential services depends on the security and resilience of digital systems.
The days of cybersecurity being seen as an IT-only issue are long gone. And the draft Cyber Security and Resilience Bill rightly reflects this reality. It raises the bar for all operators of essential services and digital service providers, placing clear expectations on their ability to protect, detect and respond. That includes maintaining visibility into their digital estates, understanding the scope of their risk exposure and ensuring that incidents are reported quickly and accurately.

For many, this will represent a significant operational and cultural change. Why? Because all too often, organisations rely on a patchwork of legacy tools, manual processes and incomplete inventories to manage complex environments that now span cloud infrastructure, mobile endpoints, operational technology (OT) and third-party services.

The result is often a fragmented view of their security posture and one that simply can’t keep pace with today’s dynamic threat landscape. And one of the recurring themes that resonates with me is this: you cannot protect what you cannot see.

AI Is Accelerating The Arms Race

There’s plenty of commentary about the threat posed by AI. The most recent was contained in the pages of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review, which warns that bad actors are rapidly advancing their own AI capabilities. Which is why we need to use this same technology as a countermeasure.

Wherever you look, the message is clear: cyber resilience is no longer optional – it’s essential to the safe delivery of public services.

For public sector leaders especially, aligning policy with operational readiness is key – because citizens don’t judge services by compliance, but by continuity. Resilience isn’t just about preventing attacks; it’s about ensuring critical services can function safely and reliably, even amid disruption.

This is where forward-looking organisations have a chance to lead. By investing in unified platforms that provide real-time insight and control across their entire digital estate, they can move from a position of vulnerability to one of strength. That means knowing what’s happening, where, and why, and being able to take action at speed.

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill signals a move toward a more assertive, accountability-driven approach to cyber regulation. And while it is to be welcomed, when the next cyberattack hits - and it will - it’s not legislation that will defend assets but technology, and the teams using those tools to ensure that they hold the line.

Dan Jones is Senior Security Advisor EMEA at Tanium

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