CyberScotland Partnership supports almost 1,300 businesses, new figures show 

A cyber partnership formed one year ago has supported almost 1,300 businesses in Scotland to plan for and recover from a cyber incident.

The CyberScotland Partnership, created last February to provide a central, up-to-date cybersecurity resource for individuals and public, private, and third sector organisations, has helped businesses increase their cyber resilience through its ‘incident response’ plan.

The collaborative leadership approach, whose origin members include the Scottish Government, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC), has grown from 10 to 16 organisations in that time.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre serves as technical advisor.

Since its launch, the initiative has collaborated on cybersecurity campaigns for a range of audiences, including raising awareness among students on how to stay secure online and providing advice to Glasgow businesses during the climate change conference Cop26.

Jude McCorry, chair of the CyberScotland Partnership and SBRC’s chief executive, said: “We’ve seen the community spirit flourish in Scotland in recent years; the CyberScotland Partnership portal has built on that, relying on multiple organisations to share information so we all emerge stronger in the end.

“Looking ahead, we will continue to collaborate and focus our efforts on ensuring that businesses and individuals throughout the country are prepared to deal with cyber incidents.”

Mark Gallacher, cybercrime harm prevention inspector, Police Scotland added: “Cyber crime has come to the fore in recent years, and it can truly devastate its victims.

“The CyberScotland Partnership is a vital collaboration, providing clear and coherent information to support individuals and organisations in their efforts to stay secure and resilient.”

The 16 participating organisations in the CyberScotland Partnership are: CENSIS; College Development Network; Education Scotland; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; National Cyber Security Centre; Police Scotland; ScotlandIS; Scottish Business Resilience Centre; Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations; Scottish Enterprise; Scottish Government; Scottish Social Services Council; Skills Development Scotland; YoungScot; YouthLink Scotland; and IASME Consortium.

CyberScotland is funded by the Scottish Government.