North West Government WARP (NWGWARP)

The North West Local Government WARP (NWGWARP) is provided by the North West E-Government Group (NWeGG) and operated by Liverpool John Moores University. NWGWARP received support from the ODPM within the NLAWARP project managed by SOCITM. . The target community for NWGWARP is the 46 local authorities within the north west of England. This community has been identified as ideal for a WARP, combining a regional focus with a common business operation. The community are already linked through groups such as NWeGG and similar forums.

The NWGWARP will assist in the reduction of electronic attacks against local government services IT infrastructure by providing raised awareness of vulnerabilities to the users within the community. All three WARP services will be offered, starting with the Filtered Warnings Service, followed by Advice Brokering with face to face meetings and the operation of a bulletin board. A Trusted Sharing service will also be introduced as the trust builds within the community. The partners in the WARP operation have considerable expertise and track record working in information technology, information assurance and multi authority partnerships. Additionally, LJMU have as their core business activity the information sharing, so there is a natural fit with the aim of WARP generally.

This WARP is ideally placed to link closely with related WARPs, such as those initiated under the NLAWARP project and NWEWARP for emergency services, also operated by LJMU. Although local government systems are not yet considered part of the UK’s core Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) systems, their status is clearly important. The establishment of this WARP will provide enhanced links and improved access to the CNI protection functions of NISCC and UNIRAS.

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