OB Collective

Why HTTPS Alone is No Longer Enough – Cyber Security 🔐 Most people think if a system has HTTPS, it’s secure. But HTTPS just protects the pipe, not the data. Once the data arrives inside your network, it’s decrypted. And that’s where attackers wait. They spoof identities. Tamper with payloads. Slip into the gaps between systems. Man-in-the-middle attacks, insider threats, misconfigured APIs and social engineering tactics are all now more common than zero-days. It’s not just about stopping access at the door anymore. It’s about verifying every transaction, at every point of movement. We’ve seen what happens when that breaks down. The Electoral Commission breach. Co-Op. M&S. JLR. Each attack led to reputational damage, regulatory scrutiny and huge remediation costs. When you hold sensitive data such as health, legal, financial or national, trust isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s everything. Government Departments can’t keep relying on perimeter security and good intentions. They need verifiable, tamper-evident infrastructure. Infrastructure that aligns with Zero Trust, where no action is trusted by default and every claim is proven. Modern threats require modern solutions. Because true cyber resilience means preparing for when, not if. If you're currently working in Cyber or Information Security, this is one of the topics we’ll be exploring in our upcoming online session on November 6th — let me know if you’d like to join. #Government #CyberSecurity #ZeroTrust

Are you leading an Engineering team and wondering if you are above or below the curve when it comes to AI tooling Adoption in your SDLC? When ChatGPT was released into the world at the back end of 2022, we were all told our jobs would be swallowed up by now and we'd either have a life of utopian leisure or dystopian inequality.... thankfully, we aren't quite there yet! However, we are at an age that, if the correct AI tooling is implemented, adopted and measured, it can be a huge help in the SDLC. But it's hard to know how you are doing against your peers, where you could improve and how to measure ROI. That's why OB Collective have launched our AI Adoption Assessment, it's a short, sharp engagement that will ✅ Assess & Benchmark your team's usage and adoption against our industry survey ✅ Provide a detailed report ✅ Assist you in implementing and accelerating AI tooling that's right for you ✅ Measure your ROI Sound interesting? DM me to find out more #AI #AItooling #Adoption #Techconsulting #SDLC #SoftwareEngineering

🚀 Expert Teams. Deployed in 2 Weeks. At OB Collective, we know organisations can’t afford to wait months for delivery momentum. That’s why we specialise in building and deploying bespoke agile software teams within 2 weeks. The truth? The delay is rarely capability — it’s usually legal and terms. Once contracts are signed, we move fast. ✅ Backed by Oliver Bernard's Associate network, giving access to the top 5% of technologists in the UK ✅ Teams that are both technically strong and culturally aligned ✅ Delivery oversight to guarantee outcomes Whether you’re driving innovation in the private sector or navigating compliance in the public sector, OB Collective is the consultancy partner that helps you accelerate. #OBCollective #AgileDelivery #TechConsulting #SoftwareDevelopment #PublicSectorIT

If you want to help shape the UK’s approach to data sovereignty, digital trust and cryptographic security, we'd love to hear from you. https://lnkd.in/gCgsdfux 🌐 🔐

"The next internet won’t just be hardware and software – it’ll need trustware." As AI agents become more autonomous, the question of how they verify actions, identity and claims becomes fundamental. Unlike humans, agents can’t rely on intuition, tone or social cues. They need verifiability – and that’s where distributed ledgers come in. The thought piece below from Anand Iyer covers the intricacy and nuance of agentic AI interactions excellently ⬇️ 💡 "Civilizations scale because humans are capable of implicit trust, ai agents are not; their only path to build an agentic society is through a ledger of truth..aka a blockchain. Money is always the first thing written on a ledger as it’s the simplest form of truth to preserve: > Who has what. > Who paid whom. The first step is that agents need a way to exchange value, but that’s only chapter one. Humans rely on memory, reputations and unspoken social cues to decide who to trust, but agents have none of that so every action must be verified, every claim must be proven. Agents need a shared registry where they can anchor identity, reputation and validation. This has a minimal on-chain footprint, but enough to let machines discover each other and know who they are dealing with. Once you have this, the roadmap is clear: 1. Payments first, because money is the most legible record. 2. Identity and reputation next so agents can transact with each other with confidence. 3. Coordination and contracts that enable marketplaces and collective action amongst agents. Why blockchains, and not just any distributed system? Because blockchains are designed for adversarial environments where: > Every record is verifiable > Every state transition is transparent > Consensus emerges without requiring participants to pre-trust each other. Databases can replicate data, and permissioned systems can share logs, but none of those protect against agents lying, censoring or rewriting history. Only a blockchain offers credible neutrality where no one single actor has the keys to the ledger, no one can unilaterally edit the past. For us humans, that distinction may feel subtle because we carry implicit trust into most interactions. But for agents, it’s existential because when one machine interacts with another, it has no body language to read, no reputation to intuit, no fallback court system. Its entire confidence comes from verifiability and blockchains are built for exactly that: a public, append-only memory where identity can be anchored and trust can be established. The agentic internet will run on verifiable truth and money is only the opening act. The endgame is a civilization of agents that communicate, trust and share resources through distributed ledger technology. We have hardware, we have software, now its time for trustware." 🤖 ⛓️ 🔐

Very excited to announce the first members of our Strategic Advisory Board! Nick Borwell, John Vine CBE QPM, and Charlie Hall  👏 Achieving meaningful change requires surrounding ourselves with people of integrity and capability, leaders who share our passion for public service and belief in cutting edge technology to deliver lasting improvements. Having such respected industry figures commit to shaping and delivering this vision is a powerful validation of the opportunity and responsibility we now carry. Each brings a unique perspective shaped by decades of experience operating at the highest levels, with first-hand responsibility for some of the UK’s most complex operational and strategic challenges. 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐎𝐁𝐄 Nick has leadership experience across Defence, Government and industry. He served as Director of the Government’s Project Delivery Profession within the IPA, where he strengthened capability across Whitehall, and has held senior programme director roles with BT and Mott MacDonald. Nick is an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School and has directed multiple cohorts of the Government’s Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA). He currently chairs Royal Free London Property Services and is an Associate with the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 𝐕𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐂𝐁𝐄 𝐐𝐏𝐌 John served as Chief Constable of Tayside Police and President of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland before becoming the UK’s first Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. He reported to three Home Secretaries, publishing more than 70 reports and 500 recommendations that shaped border control, including reforms leading to the creation of Border Force. Since leaving Government, John has advised on policing and border security both within the UK and internationally. 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐐𝐏𝐌 Charlie served in UK Policing for over three decades, culminating in his role as Chief Constable of Hertfordshire Constabulary. He led a workforce of 4,500 with a £260m budget and directed national policing strategy as Chair of the NPCC Operations Coordination Committee. As NPCC lead for ANPR, he worked with the Home Office to deliver national IT solutions, and as Senior Responsible Officer for JESIP he embedded interoperability across emergency services nationwide. Awarded the Queen’s Police Medal, he now advises the Police Federation on strategic policing. They will be joining OBC to provide subject matter expertise, advisory input and assurance support for our work delivering sovereign, next-gen cryptographic data capabilities. Our tech address the key challenges and ambition in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, Defence Reform and Policing’s 2030 Digital Strategy, from legacy fragmentation and cyber gaps to inconsistent standards and the need for trusted, real-time data. OB Collective is committed to helping organisations turn these ambitions into reality. 🤝

We are really proud to have Rahul M. on the OB Collective team! 🚀 As a Lead Technical Architect at the UK Home Office Automation & Innovation function, he combines 20+ years of international tech experience, deep knowledge of low-code tools like Microsoft Power Platform, and a mission to make public services more effective and humane. He’s leading high-impact projects, ensuring Architectures are robust and ethical, and helping drive a culture of innovation within government. You can read his story here: https://lnkd.in/d2su-BUk #PubSec #Transformation #TechnicalArchitecure #UKGov #Innovation #Automation

I'll be at The Emergency Tech Show this week, and it’s an exciting and necessary time for innovation in Policing. Crime isn’t just local anymore it’s cross-county, national, global and increasingly online. Forces need modern tools for modern law enforcement. National Policing bodies and local Forces across the UK are doubling down on the role that data and technology can play not just to improve services, but importantly to keep the public safe. Solving the core challenges around interoperability, data quality, and security are now an agreed and welcomed priority. Because Forces need modern tools for modern law enforcement. Without this innovation, backed by the right culture and consistent actions, as well as the required investment from Government, we risk reinforcing more fragmented policing models that don’t reflect the way crime actually works today. I'm looking forward to seeing how the private sector is supporting these modernisation ambitions and the actions Forces are taking – OB Collective will be there to highlight our secure data sharing, AI-ready infrastructure, with evidence integrity from the edge to the courtroom. ⛓️ 🔐 If you're exploring any of this, let’s connect. ☕ 🌐 🚔 🚑 🚒 🌐

"China’s digital infrastructure gets $54.5B blockchain overhaul." China’s interest in blockchain development has entered a new phase as the country unveils a comprehensive national framework for digital infrastructure transformation. The final phase, targeted for 2029, aims to achieve full operational status of a unified framework integrating public and private sector systems. China’s new infrastructure will include: ✅ Trusted data circulation systems 🔐 Multi-layered security protocols 🧠 Privacy-preserving computation ⚙️ Smart contract functions 🔗 Cross-chain interoperability The initiative positions China as a pioneer in national-level blockchain adoption, and it could influence how others approach digital infrastructure. While China moves decisively to implement a national framework, the UK’s approach remains fragmented, and crucially, missing key components. It’s encouraging to see momentum building behind UK Defence modernisation. But despite bold ambitions in the Defence Industrial Strategy and Strategic Defence Review, neither document mentions blockchain or distributed ledger at all. This is particularly concerning given the recent NCSC advisory confirming that UK Government, transport and military systems have already been targeted, with cyber attacks traced back to Chinese actors exploiting well-known weaknesses. The attackers stole data that could allow Chinese intelligence to identify and track targets’ communications and movements. This is just one of many examples highlighting the impact of decades of UK under-investment in emerging technologies. The UK's State of Digital Government report in Jan 2025 found that 28% of technology is considered legacy, with systems over 30 years old. This figure is higher in Policing, reaching nearly 50% of systems. The BBC reported way back in 2021 that nearly half of UK Gov spend on IT, £2.3B out of £4.7 annually, goes on patching up old systems (and I'd hedge a bet this figure is even bigger now). The Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government has already called out the risks of siloed systems and the need for secure, integrated infrastructure. There is a positive business case as well, with examples such as Estonia’s decentralised approach being an important case study. They're saving 1–2% of GDP annually and showing that investment in advanced digital infrastructure pays off economically as well as militarily. The need to bolster our own digital backbone with secure, verifiable infrastructure has never been more pressing. Strategic independence starts with sovereign control over our digital foundations and critical data assets. Whilst other global super powers make significant strides, it’s time for the UK to get off the starting blocks. 🇬🇧 #UKGovernment #DefenceIndustrialStrategy #DefenceReform