Good Practice Guide 13 is a set of IT controls that form part of the Code of Connection (CoCo), a prescriptive technical standard that public-sector organizations must meet in order to gain access to the UK Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSX), which is a secure wide-area network (SWAN) for the sharing of information among central government departments and local authorities.
Specifically, Good Practice Guide 13 defines requirements for protective monitoring -- comprised of tasks such as event log management and the use of intrusion detection and prevention systems -- that local authorities must comply with in order to prevent accidental or malicious data loss. As connection to the Government Connect Secure Extranet entails potential access to citizens' health documentation and/or criminal records, among other sensitive information sources, compliance with CoCo and Good Practice Guide 13 is important for protecting privacy and preventing costly data breaches
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