Cybersecurity for the public sector and critical infrastructure
Organizations: government bodies and critical infrastructure operators
We protect government systems and critical infrastructure from targeted attacks, including state-sponsored ones, using real Gov & Defence Tech playbooks and in line with regulatory requirements. Your data stays within Ukrainian jurisdiction, and the price stays affordable even on a limited budget.
Cybersecurity Challenges in the Public sector and Critical infrastructure
On the front line of cyber threats
Government institutions and critical infrastructure organizations that keep the daily routine of millions of citizens running are becoming primary targets for highly skilled state-sponsored hackers. They use the most advanced technologies, and continuous attacks on civilian systems are used as a tool to destabilize societies. For these organizations, every incident is very costly and carries enormous responsibility.
Financial and regulatory specificities
Unlike the commercial sector, public institutions operate with strictly limited budgets and long decision-making cycles: annual planning, funding approval, and mandatory tender procedures. This significantly limits their ability to respond quickly to new threats. In addition, strict legal and regulatory rules narrow the choice of available technology services, so specialists quite often have no choice but to maintain outdated systems, and update and vulnerability remediation cycles take longer than today's environment demands.
Staff shortage and technical debt
The large-scale and rapid digital transformation of the state is taking place while the security culture and digital literacy of employees still need constant improvement, which creates additional risks of accidental mistakes or data leaks. The situation is made worse by a chronic shortage of qualified security specialists, as the public sector struggles to compete with the private sector on salaries. Internal threats should not be ruled out either, from simple staff errors caused by overload to deliberate actions by agents of influence.
Strict regulatory requirements
Government institutions and critical infrastructure facilities operate under the pressure of numerous and strict regulatory requirements: national cybersecurity legislation, industry standards, rules for protecting restricted-access information, and mandatory incident reporting. Here, compliance is not optional but a requirement of the law, and failure to comply leads to legal liability and sanctions. At the same time, the procedures themselves are complex: they require documentation, regular audits, and certification, and the list of approved solutions and suppliers is often limited.
Why A42
- Proven track record in security testing of government services and in digital transformation projects.
- Products built on real playbooks for Ukraine's government and defence sectors
- A clear understanding of the threat landscape and proven effectiveness against state-sponsored cyberattacks
- Leading cybersecurity expertise backed by our own R&D, which studies new cyber threats, attack methods, the capabilities of artificial intelligence, and international cybersecurity trends
- Compliance with international standards and requirements
- Assessment performed entirely from the outside, with no access to the internal network or passwords and no software to install
- Experience in public-private partnerships and the ability to deliver services within three-way partnerships with donor-funded projects
- A flexible approach to data storage, adapted to the client's requirements
- Proven cybersecurity procedures agreed with regulators, automated through our expertise and more affordable than competing solutions
Cybersecurity Products and Services for the Public Sector and Critical Infrastructure
Building cybersecurity
An objective assessment of your current cybersecurity posture. We build protection from scratch or audit your existing processes, find weak points, and provide a step-by-step plan to fix them.
Cyber hygiene training for employees that builds a security culture and reduces the risk of successful phishing attacks.
Continuous cybersecurity monitoring
Automated penetration testing based on playbooks of elite white hat hackers from government and defence tech that assesses your systems the way a real attacker would. At its base price, it does not require complex procurement tenders, delivers results within four working days, and includes the option of a full retest at half price. Specialized AI agents find and exploit vulnerabilities, work across the full scope of findings, and can build complex attack chains. Safe proof-of-concept.
Continuously monitors for vulnerabilities and secret leaks. The assessment is performed entirely from the outside, with no access to the internal network, which is critical for sensitive government systems. The platform automatically discovers forgotten and outdated assets, which is usually where the greatest risk lies.
Access control for critical resources based on the principle of least privilege. Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Joiner–Mover–Leaver processes directly reduce insider risks, which is especially important for services with many users.
Compliance with industry standards and requirements
A42 Governance, Risk & Compliance Platform
coming soonAssesses your organization's cyber maturity and its compliance with ISO/IEC 27001, NIS2, NIST CSF, and other international standards, automating risk management, compliance monitoring, and roadmap creation. It links standards to real technical measures, enabling the shift from paper-based compliance to managed security.
FAQ
What requirements and standards must a government body's cybersecurity meet?
Government bodies in the EU operate within a mix of European legislation and national law. The central framework is the NIS2 directive, which sets cybersecurity requirements for public administration and other essential and important entities, and which each member state transposes into its own national law. Data protection is governed separately by the GDPR, while many institutions also align with international standards such as ISO/IEC 27001 for information security management. On top of this, the EU Cybersecurity Act provides a common certification framework and defines the role of ENISA, the EU agency for cybersecurity. Whatever the exact combination, all these rules share one requirement: protection must not be a formality on paper but must be confirmed by real technical measures and regular testing.
What is NIS2 and who does it apply to?
NIS2 is the updated EU directive on network and information security that sets common cybersecurity requirements for critical industries. It applies to "essential" and "important" organizations in energy, transport, banking, healthcare, water supply, digital infrastructure, and public administration. The directive requires organizations to implement risk management measures, report incidents, and regularly test the effectiveness of their protection.
Is a penetration test required for NIS2 compliance?
NIS2 does not use the word "pentest" directly, but Article 21 requires organizations to assess the effectiveness of their cybersecurity measures, and penetration testing is a standard and recognized way to carry out that assessment. In practice, regular penetration testing confirms that protection actually works rather than existing only on paper, and it provides evidence for audits.
What is a penetration test and why do government bodies need it?
A penetration test (pentest) is a controlled simulation of an attack in which specialists or AI agents act as a real attacker and show exactly how a system can be breached. Unlike a scanner, which only lists potential problems, a penetration test confirms that a vulnerability can actually be exploited. Government bodies need it to fix dangerous issues before attackers exploit them and to meet regulators' requirements for security testing.
What is external attack surface monitoring and why is it needed?
The external attack surface is everything about an organization that is visible from the internet: domains, subdomains, open services, and APIs. Monitoring this surface means continuously discovering all these assets and looking for vulnerabilities and data leaks in them before attackers can use them. The greatest risk usually lies not on the main website but on forgotten or outdated services that the organization no longer remembers. The A42 Recon+Exposure platform performs this monitoring automatically and entirely from the outside.