Real UK Security Breaches Revealed: What Cyber Security Project Managers Must Know

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Breach Case Snapshots (UK-Based)

These are not to assign blame but to extract lessons. Project managers delivered what they were asked. The challenge? The ask was incomplete.

1. Legal Aid Agency

Exposure: Over 2 million sensitive records across 15 years
Missed: Cybersecurity experts and government officials cited legacy systems and inadequate data segmentation as key risks.
PM Takeaway: When scope includes legacy systems, raise a flag. Don’t just deliver, define the risk that is obvious but not funded.

2. Scottish School Exam Disruption (Phishing)

Impact: Pupils locked out before critical exams
Missed: Lack of user awareness
PM Takeaway: If your change impacts humans, user training must be part of the deliverable.

3. Southern Water Attack

Impact: Infrastructure disruption, £4.5M in losses (Source: BleepingComputer)
Missed: According to post-incident reviews, gaps in segmentation and unclear escalation paths contributed.
PM Takeaway: Delivery teams should escalate upstream when architectural risks are detected even if it's "not in scope."

4. Retail Sector Targeted: Ransomware Strikes

Impact: UK organisations hit by vendor-side vulnerabilities
Missed: Lack of third-party risk oversight
PM Takeaway: Ask whether external vendors or shared platforms are included in the organisation’s threat model. Highlight indirect risks.

What Cyber PMs Do Differently

A cybersecurity PM is not just a deliverable-tracker.
They are a translator, a connector, and often the last line of visibility between high risk and overlooked assumptions.

Cyber PMs:

• Speak in both project and risk language

• Identify policy or infra gaps others ignore

• Escalate unknown unknowns (not just delays)

• Bake resilience into plans, not bolt it on at the end

• Bring awareness of frameworks (e.g., NIST, NCSC, Cyber Essentials) to scope planning

This mindset doesn’t just help the security team. It protects the business.

What to Ask (When No One Else Does)

Even without technical expertise, great Cyber PMs think one level deeper:

• "What happens if we’re breached mid-project?"

• "Who owns security testing and what’s the fallback if it fails?"

• "What’s our comms plan if something goes wrong?"

• "Is user training funded and scheduled?"

• "How is sensitive data classified and protected throughout the lifecycle?"

• "What interdependencies could expose us to third-party risks?"

You don’t have to solve everything. But your questions create resilience

Guidance for Sponsors (from a Cyber PM's View)

Sponsors are often focused on delivery speed and stakeholder updates. Here’s what you can help them see:

• "Our project is secure, but is our data shared with insecure systems?"

• "We are meeting the spec, but the infrastructure underneath is unpatched."

• "We are training users, but not testing what they have learned."

• "We are integrating with vendors who may not meet our security standards."

You don't just report upward but you protect upward too.

PM's Checklist for Outside-the-Scope Risks

Want a simple tool to spot blind spots in your next delivery?

Wev have created a free downloadable checklist you can use with your team and sponsors Print it. Share it. Bring it to your next project kickoff.

This checklist is your shield. Use it not to block work, but to protect outcomes.

Looking Ahead: The Cyber PM of the Future

The best cybersecurity PMs of the future will be:

• Risk-literate and outcome-focused

• Trusted voices across IT, legal, ops, and leadership

• Not just planners, but protectors of resilience

• Confident in surfacing organisational blind spots before projects begin

If that’s where you want to grow, this is your moment.

Final Thought

“Projects don’t fail because we missed tasks but sometimes they fail we miss what is outside the task list”

As a Cyber PM, your power isn’t just in the plan. It’s in what you notice and raise especially when no one is asking.

Next Week:

The PM's Role in Cyber Resilience, Beyond the Project Plan

PS: Know a PM working in a high-stakes environment? Forward this, it could save them from missing what matters most.

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