Reply to post: How can they still be PSN certified?

A third of London boroughs 'fess to running unsupported server software

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

How can they still be PSN certified?

I'm an ex local gov employee (outside of London, but not too far) and worked as an ICT manager and know that most LAs have to comply with the PSN Code of Connection (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psn-code-of-connection-coco). Running these unsupported servers is a direct violation of this agreement...so the question is, how can they still be allowed to operate on the PSN network (which handles sensitive DWP data amongst other things)?

I know where I worked, we had 2x 2003 servers still running and we were allowed to keep operating with W2003 as long as we could show a clear path to migrating off of the unsupported software. However, this is farcical as this remained the case for at least 3 years in a row (and was still the case in April this year) and basically showed that the PSN CoCo is toothless and LAs are getting away with risking ALL of our data!

This just goes to show how lax central gov is when it comes to this compliance and also how underfunded LAs are. In our situation, it wasn't because we wanted to remain on legacy software, we just couldn't afford to replace the systems running it, but where the MoD have the luxury of paying for extended support, LAs can't afford to do this.

Come on Central Gov...wake up and smell the sh** that LAs are coping with!

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