Staffordshire County Council Fortifies its Cybersecurity Posture with ANS
Watch the Staffordshire Council Customer Success Story video
Discover how Staffordshire County Council transformed its cybersecurity strategy through an empowering partnership with ANS and Staffordshire & Shropshire Health Informatics Service (SSHIS) to successfully manage threats across a multi-sector digital environment.
The video highlights how ANS, working alongside SSHIS, delivered a practical, expert-led Security Operations Centre (SOC) solution to strengthen the council’s cybersecurity posture and increase confidence navigating evolving challenges.
Background
Staffordshire County Council plays a vital role in overseeing key public services across healthcare, education, the local economy, and transportation infrastructure. At the centre of its mission is a commitment to helping grow the region’s economy, solidify public trust, and ensure that every child has the best possible start in life. Despite the diversity of the sectors the council manages, one shared priority emerged: the need for reliable, modern cybersecurity.
With increasing threats targeting public sector organisations, the council recognised the importance of a proactive and resilient cybersecurity strategy to protect its services and uphold the trust of the communities it serves.
Challenge
Local councils are under increasing pressure to protect sensitive data and maintain uninterrupted public services, all while facing increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
A single attack can disrupt daily operations and cause major consequences across critical services like healthcare and education – impacting the most vulnerable members of the community.
Staffordshire County Council recognised the need for stronger cybersecurity posture but lacked the internal resources to operate a fully staffed, expert-level Security Operations Centre (SOC). To stay protected, they needed a cost-effective solution that delivered real-time visibility and rapid response, maintained by cybersecurity experts.
Solution
To meet this challenge, Staffordshire County Council partnered with Staffordshire & Shropshire Health Informatics Service (SSHIS), which procures a SOC solution from ANS and offers it to public sector organisations alongside a variety of wraparound advisory services. In large part due to ANS’ extensive work within the public sector and our familiarity with the council’s existing technical infrastructure, the partnership offered a cost-effective, scalable solution tailored to the council’s specific needs.
ANS’ Security Operations Centre (SOC) remotely monitors the council’s security information and event management (SIEM) tools. This ensures continuous threat detection and mitigation, backed by highly skilled professionals who maintain open communication with internal security teams.
ANS engineers worked closely with the council to provide expert insight and hands-on support to detect alerts and deal with threats. As Head of Cyber Security at Staffordshire County Council, Stuart Fletcher, noted, “It’s been really useful to lean on their knowledge and skill to get the most of out the product.”
Outcome
The impact of the SOC service was felt immediately. When an elected member of the council fell victim to a phishing scam, ANS swiftly detected suspicious log in attempts from overseas and quickly disabled the compromised account, reset the password and any associated tokens, while alerting the council of the attempted attack. This prevented further damage and reinforced the value of having proactive expert support in place.
Threats against Staffordshire County Council can now be identified and neutralised in real time, with the SOC providing 24/7/365 monitoring and risk evaluation.
Regular monthly reviews with ANS’ customer account manager ensures performance is measured against shared KPIs, maintaining complete transparency and allowing continuous improvement. This end-to-end management gives the council confidence in its protection and the flexibility to adapt to everchanging threats in the digital domain.
The Future
Looking ahead, Staffordshire County Council is committed to evolving its cybersecurity strategy in line with emerging threats and technological advancements. The long-term resilience of ANS’ solution, partnered with SSHIS’ guidance on runbooks for how to respond to certain types of events and assistance producing major incident plans, sets a strong example for public sector cybersecurity, with key priorities of safety and innovation.
“It’s a really positive relationship and I’m sure it will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Vic Falcus – Head of ICT at Staffordshire County Council
