A new app will help Scottish businesses stay safe on and offline by alerting them to threats to their operations – including cyber attacks.
The Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) has launched the platform to provide advice and support for companies vulnerable to crime.
Through targeted push notifications, businesses that download the app will be informed of credible dangers to their services – such as cyber threats, traffic, and protestor activity – and receive accurate sector-specific guidance within minutes.
The app, which has been developed with support from the Scottish Government, will be especially beneficial to businesses which have heightened concerns around cyber attacks and other threats to business activity as Cop26 approaches.
It will provide notifications coded into red, amber and green levels of priority to better inform businesses and allow them to distinguish which alerts will require immediate action and those that will require monitoring.
The tailored alerts are powered by user insights gathered at registration through a brief multiple-choice questionnaire capturing their industry, location, and specific concerns or challenges they may be facing. Using these details, the app will only share relevant threat insights with users – something likely to prove valuable in preparation for, during and after Cop26.
The insights received by users through the app will be contributed from organisations including Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, the Scottish Government and the CyberScotland Partnership.
Jude McCorry, chief executive of SBRC, said: “Our aim at SBRC is to ensure that no Scottish business fails because of lack of knowledge or support when it comes to their resilience. When the pandemic hit, there was an incredible amount of detail shared with businesses which, at times, may have been overwhelming or only applied to the few rather than the many. We’ve taken learnings from this on how important it is to keep the business industry informed of the updates that directly affect them.
“The presence of high-profile events can lead to a rise in cybersecurity threats as criminals may wish to take advantage of them to cause heightened disruption. The security protocols in place during Cop26 may mean businesses have to react quickly to developments if they want to continue operating as normal.
“The Scottish Business Resilience Centre app is an essential tool for businesses to be as prepared as possible ahead of, during, and after Cop26 by sharing up-to-date guidance and intelligence notifications on resilience issues, specific to the user’s sector, size, and region. We will provide push notifications with red, amber, and green alerts of any new guidance or incidents that may impact operations, including cyber incidents or major crimes.”
The app will provide users with quick access to SBRC’s Cyber Incident Response Helpline, created in partnership with Police Scotland and the Scottish Government, aimed at providing rapid support to small medium enterprises who believe they may have fallen victim to a cyber hack and need urgent advice.
The option to join a LinkedIn community, where advice and best practice will be shared by SBRC and partners, will also be available. A library of guidance documents on subjects such as cyber security, working from home and social media reporting has also been built into the app.
The app is now available to download from the Android and Apple app stores.