Alison Stone looks ahead to a week-long festival of events on cyber awareness, cyber careers and innovation in cyber security
Cyber Scotland Week will take place across the country between 17 – 23 February, when a varied and interesting programme of events will raise awareness of good cyber resilience practice, showcase the innovative work that is happening across Scotland’s cyber security industry, and promote skills development and careers in cyber security.
The week will bring together influencers, experts and the next generation of talent to explore and learn about the potential rewards and challenges in this fast-changing threat landscape.
The first Cyber Scotland Week in April 2019 saw over 30 events taking place in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Midlothian, Orkney, Perth, St Andrews, Stirling and Tweedbank. Already the 2020 week has more than doubled the activity of 2019, with a range of events including an Inside the Mind of a Hacker session on day one of The Gathering and a workshop on Securing Data in the Digital Age on day two of the SCVO annual conference.
The Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit will be available on stand 108 at The Gathering to provide help, advice and signposting to resources which help organisations improve their cyber security.
In addition to The Gathering events, SCVO is continuing to offer funding towards the NCSC Cyber Essentials Accreditation. This grant provides up to £1000 for third sector organisations which are looking to improve technical controls in line with the certification standard and is available until 31 March.
The funding, underwritten by the Scottish Government, is the fifth round of funding for the scheme which has seen 150 third sector organisations to date achieve this standard.
Gaining the accreditation is an excellent way of assuring stakeholders that the security of data and IT systems is taken seriously. More information can be found at scvo.org.uk/funding/cyber-essentials-fund.
While the application process, available from the SCVO website, is not complex, there may be technical elements or questions that can provide taxing.
To support applicants, there is a Cyber Advice Helpline available during working hours.
This is staffed by members of the third sector Catalyst network (organisations who have committed at board level to act as cyber ambassadors to the sector) and available to anyone who may have a question about either the application process or cyber security in general. The Cyber Advice Helpline can be contacted on 0131 222 2799.
Cyber security is an important issue and organisations large and small should adopt a “when not if” attitude to a cyber breach. Raising the profile of cyber resilience via programmes such as Cyber Scotland Week is important and all organisations are encouraged to get involved.
This could be by holding an event for internal or external stakeholders or by participating in a social media campaign to raise awareness.
A campaign pack and suggested social media messages are available to download from cyberscotlandweek.scot. Social media messaging during the week should feature #CyberScotWeek2020.
For detailed information on any of the above, contact the head of third sector cyber resilience via email at cyberresilience@gov.scot
Alison Stone is cyber resilience coordinator at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).
