Q&A with North Kesteven & West Lindsey District Council, Security Excellence Awards finalist

‘One trend that will genuinely change things for councils is the shift toward intelligence‑driven automation’

Cliff Dean, CIO, North Kesteven & West Lindsey District Council is a finalist in the Cybersecurity Advocate/Educator of the Year category in Computing’s Security Excellence Awards.

Cliff Dean is Chief Information Officer of ICT for North Kesteven & West Lindsey District Council where he is responsible for a joint ICT and digital service. He is a finalist in the new category of Cybersecurity Advocate/Educator of the Year at the Computing Security Excellence Awards.

Why do you think awards like the Security Excellence Awards matter?

They matter because cybersecurity is not something any one organisation can tackle alone. Our resilience depends on how well we share intelligence, how openly we talk about lessons learned, and how willing we are to help each other improve.

Events like this create the space to recognise people who strengthen that collaborative culture — the individuals who bring councils, partners and sectors together, often quietly, to make sure we all benefit from the same insight and good practice.

For me, it’s less about the award itself and more about shining a light on the collective effort needed to keep our communities safe.

What would winning this award mean to you and your team?

It would mean a great deal to all of us. The work we’re doing right now whether that’s improving our dark web response, strengthening the WARP community, or supporting partners who don’t have dedicated cyber staff is only possible because the team genuinely believes in working together.

None of this is a solo effort: web response, strengthening the WARP community, or supporting partners who don’t have dedicated cyber staff—is only possible because the team genuinely believes in working together.

Winning would be a recognition of that shared commitment and the way everyone has leaned into collaboration, both within the councils and across the wider region. We’re already looking ahead to how we can grow our capability even further, especially through apprenticeships, mentoring and developing new shared practices.

For me, the award wouldn’t be a finish line. It would be encouragement to keep building on the positive momentum we’ve created as a team and to continue shaping a more joined up, supportive cyber community.

What is your proudest achievement over the past year?

What I’m proud of most is that we didn’t let Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) become a reason to pause or lose focus. Even with the uncertainty and the amount of change happening, we kept building capability and strengthening our resilience.

The dark web work is a great example of that. Instead of simply identifying risks and issuing reports, we took the intelligence directly into schools and other organisations, sat with them, and helped them understand the problem and fix it. That hands‑on, practical support prevented real‑world harm, and that’s what matters.

I’m also proud of what we’ve achieved through the WARP. Getting every council in the East of England fully engaged, sharing information openly and acting on fast‑time intelligence is a huge step. That level of trust becomes even more important when organisations are going through big structural changes, and it’s allowed us to respond quickly and consistently across the region.

For me, it’s not one single achievement. It’s the fact that we kept progressing, kept collaborating and kept delivering value at a time when it would have been easy to slow down.”

What are the key demands you have seen from customers in the last 12 months?

One of the biggest things people have asked for this year is clarity. Whether it’s internal teams or external partners like schools, they don’t want long technical explanations - they want straightforward guidance they can act on quickly.

We’re also seeing a stronger expectation of proactive support. People want reassurance that we’re monitoring emerging threats, flagging issues early, and helping them understand what those risks mean in practical terms.

Another growing demand is consistency. Customers want to know there’s a clear route for reporting concerns, a reliable way to receive alerts, and a standard approach they can trust regardless of which service or organisation they’re working with.

What’s been encouraging is that these demands have pushed us to work more closely with partners, simplify our messaging and make our processes more transparent. It’s made us better at supporting people and strengthened relationships across the board.

Which new technology trend are you placing your bets on?

If I had to pick one trend that will genuinely change things for councils, it’s the shift toward intelligence‑driven automation. Not automation for the sake of it, but automation that links together the signals we already rely on - dark‑web alerts, ACD data, regional IoCs and vendor telemetry - and turns them into consistent, repeatable action.

For small teams especially, that’s where the real value lies: taking the routine pressure away so people can focus on the bigger risks.

I’m also placing strong confidence in identity‑centric security. As more services move into shared platforms and cloud environments, identity becomes the true perimeter. Getting that right — with good processes, strong authentication and proper lifecycle management — gives us a foundation we can build on for years.

To me, the exciting part isn’t the technology itself. It’s how these trends help us collaborate more effectively, work smarter as a region, and raise the baseline for everyone, not just the councils with the biggest teams.