The strengths of the UK’s cyber sector and its future growth capabilities are to be examined in a Cyber Growth Action Plan.

Announced today, a roadmap has been created to determine the technologies, processes, and services designed to protect digital systems. This will culminate with a set of recommendations later this summer for government to plot out what steps can be taken to deliver maximum impact.

Also, £16 million in new investment has been announced in two cyber sector programmes to kickstart growth: this will include up to £10 million in additional funding over the next four years, which will support the UK’s cutting edge academic cyber sector to turn their research into commercial companies.

The other £6 million will be also allocated to support cyber startups and SMEs - helping firms scale, access new markets through trade missions, and strengthen the UK’s wider cyber ecosystem.

Innovative Ideas

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Today’s investment will help to turn innovative ideas into successful businesses up and down the country, and the new research will support our mission to grow the economy.

“Recent cyber-attacks show just how important it is we foster the development of the sector - delivering the double dividend of high paying jobs as well as strengthening the country’s cybersecurity.”

Opportunities for Growth

The Growth Action Plan is due to report later this summer and will feed into the forthcoming National Cyber Strategy. The review is set to cover the supply and demand of cyber goods and services such as protective monitoring and encryption, to understand opportunities for growth.

Also, the research will aim to spot new trends and potential areas to capitalise on – as well as explore emerging technologies including AI and Quantum, and identify opportunities to strengthen Britain’s competitive edge.

Simon Shiu, Professor of cyber security at the University of Bristol and leading the project, said: “The UK Cyber Sector is successful and growing, but so too are the challenges as demonstrated by recent events which have affected businesses and consumers.

“Based on input from all parts of the Cyber Sector, this project will make independent recommendations to accelerate growth in cyber, but also to increase cyber-resilience in the other sectors critical to UK security, industry, and prosperity.”

Commenting, Dominic Trott, director of strategy and alliances UK at Orange Cyberdefense, said he was delighted to see further investment from the government into the UK cybersecurity sector. "While this kind of funding is long overdue, I’m encouraged by the momentum building behind cyber resilience in the UK," he said.

“The Cyber Growth Action Plan’s emphasis on investing in the UK’s academic cyber sector to foster the creation of commercial companies represents a hugely welcome investment in grassroots cyber in the UK. Similarly, the additional investment in cyber startups and SMEs to strengthen the UK’s wider cyber ecosystem is also tremendously encouraging.

"The UK is the largest cybersecurity market in Europe, and this boost to innovation and jobs will drive further growth. However, while these commitments are welcome, we hope that these are just the start of a broader programme of initiatives. The market would react positively to additional investment that could genuinely support the transfer of – for example - R&D insights from public agencies such as GCHQ to energise the UK cyber sector."

Dan Raywood

Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.

He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.