Oliver Bernard

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

Where does AI add the most value, within the SDLC? When talking to tech businesses of various sizes, it's clear everyone is at very different stages in their AI adoption. (not a hard and fast rule, but as the engineering teams seem to get bigger, the adoption rate appears to drop from what I have seen) We looked at AI’s impact on engineering productivity and the challenges of measuring ROI, in a recent survey we undertook, which was across 45 Engineering teams. Zooming in, it’s clear that adoption across the software development lifecycle is uneven. Some areas are seeing adoption faster, the obvious ones are. 🤖 Code generation & pair programming – helping engineers move faster and explore alternative solutions 🤖 Testing & QA – automating repetitive checks and surfacing potential defects earlier 🤖 Documentation – creating clearer onboarding materials and reducing knowledge silos Other stages are proving more complex to adopt. 🤖 Requirements & design – AI can suggest ideas, but real business context still relies on people 🤖 Deployment & monitoring – high stakes around reliability and security make teams cautious 🤖 Governance & compliance – ensuring AI use is safe, explainable, and within policy The big picture, AI isn’t a “plug-and-play” solution. Success depends on embedding it where it supports engineers rather than disrupts workflows. Adoption is strongest when organisations take a measured, experiment-driven approach, piloting in one area, proving value, and scaling. OB Collective are helping companies assess their AI Adoption by benchmarking you with the industry, providing a comprehensive report on where you are and how you can improve, then taking a few of those high-impact actions and helping you implement them into your workflows and measure ROI. If you are running an Engineering team and would like to hear more about how we can help in this space, then please reach out! #AI #SoftwareDevelopment #SDLC #EngineeringProductivity #TechLeadership

Great night at The Recruiter Awards last night! Being nominated for Most Effective Back Office Operation is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and passion of our Back Office team. While we didn't bring home the award, being a finalist among so many brilliant companies is a huge win for us.

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. 🤝

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

Is system interoperability in Government even worth it? (The short answer is yes, unequivocally!) No Public Sector service exists in a silo. Every programme, policy, and frontline service is interconnected. Yet because of decades of legacy systems and short-term bolt-ons, the right arm often doesn’t know what the left is doing. Imagine if your body worked like that. The eyes spoke a different language to the brain. Food had to be reconverted ten times before it could be used. Blood had to pause and wait for permission every time it reached a new organ. You’d need far more food just to keep functioning because the energy wasted would be enormous. That’s what happens in systems today. Data is duplicated, delayed, and reformatted endlessly. Information governance checks take weeks because people process them instead of tech. Entire new data lakes are built when the information already exists, just in formats that don’t talk to each other. Departments are hesitant to attempt solving this challenge. After years of significant investment and challenged delivery in large-scale platforms (some delivering more benefit than others), the idea of another 3–5 year rip-and-replace transformation isn’t high on the agenda. Especially when budgets are tight and outcomes aren’t guaranteed, plus the obvious risk of ending up with the same status quo in a shinier wrapper. But the Blueprint for a Modern Digital Government is clear: “Siloed data continues to hinder collaboration. Data sharing between and within organisations, even after recent legislative changes and sustained effort, is high friction, with agreements taking months or even years. Public sector organisations will be connected, not fragmented. Modern digital infrastructure will make public organisations more integrated, and we’ll responsibly share high value data within and outside the public sector.” There is a better way. The human body is millions of parts, but they are all connected, all communicating, and all working toward a single purpose. Government services should be the same. So how do we achieve it? OB Collective are building interoperable networks connected by secure infrastructure that makes exactly this possible. Think of it as the connective tissue that links everything together, and crucially, you own it. It enforces permissions and audit trails in real time, with data validated at the source so bad information doesn’t spread. Different data formats are translated instantly, so information flows without delay. And IG rules are applied automatically, reducing risk and freeing staff from manual checks. All without ripping out or replacing what already works. The result is faster decisions and outcomes, money and time saved, and more resilient public services. 🌐💪 If you’d like to learn more I’ll be at DigiGov at the end of the month with a few coffee slots free - [email protected] ☕️ #Government #Interoperability #ZeroTrust

Looking forward to attending this years DigiGov Expo on the 24th & 25th September. It's always great to see and listen about the Innovation and Digital transformation across the Pub Sec. If you are attending this year and would like to grab a coffee to discuss how OB Collective can help you deliver transformation this year, then drop me a DM.