Westminster is today unveiling a cyber growth action plan to set a path forward for the UK’s burgeoning cyber security industry – which already makes £13.2bn in revenues every year, supporting over 67,000 jobs – and “supercharge” its future.
The coming months will see experts from the defence and technology sectors come together under the plan’s auspices – led by the University of Bristol and Imperial College London’s Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP) – to examine the UK’s cyber sector and create a roadmap for future growth.
This exercise will culminate in a series of recommendations – hopefully later in the summer – to feed into the forthcoming national cyber strategy, which the government says is central to its plan for change.
Among other things, this review will cover areas such as the supply and demand of security goods and services to understand where there may be opportunities for growth, trends to jump on, and ideas to capitalise on, such as around artificial intelligence and quantum cryptography.
Project leader 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.”
Nigel Brandon, dean of the faculty of engineering at Imperial, added: “The CSEP at Imperial is uniquely placed to work with the University of Bristol on this important work in a rapidly growing and key sector for the UK economy. This work is aligned with our ambition to help drive economic growth by boosting the UK’s innovation capacity, productivity and competitiveness.”
More funding for startups
Alongside the main thought leadership exercise, the plan also unlocks a total of £16m in new funding to support cyber innovation and turn ideas into moneymaking businesses.
A £10m slice of this funding will flow through the CyberASAP accelerator backed by UK Research and Innovation and Innovate UK to fund its work through to the end of the decade, with the aim of generating 25 new UK cyber spin-outs and £30m in investment.
The remaining £6m will be allocated to supporting cyber startups and small and medium-sized enterprises through the successful Cyber Runway scheme that helps new security businesses grow into new markets abroad.
Advisory board
Additionally, a new iteration of the government’s Cyber Advisory Board (CAB) is to be created to advise and direct the government on public sector cyber security. This body, first convened in 2022, will work closely with Westminster in supporting its goals to strengthen the resilience of Britain’s public bodies and underpin the delivery of secure digital services.
Among the new appointments to the panel are Mark Evans, principal security strategist, at Amazon Web Services; Vijay Bolina, chief information security officer and head of cyber security research at DeepMind; Ian Thompson, senior government cyber advisor at Google; and Sarah Armstrong-Smith, chief security advisor at Microsoft.
“From laggards to leaders – in an era where cyber attacks are coming thick and fast, GCAB has the opportunity to take a commanding role, setting the right path and principles for how the UK should respond to this systemic threat,” said Armstrong-Smith. “This requires a whole-of-society approach to build collective resilience that inspires confidence in times of uncertainty.”
PA Consulting global partner lead for digital trust and cyber security Cate Pye, who is also joining the CAB, added: “It is a really pivotal part of making sure that the whole of the UK contributes to our cyber security as this becomes increasingly essential to the way we live and work.
“It is also an exemplar of how government and industry can work as one team to really change the way both government and the private sector pragmatically address cyber challenges together, building trust and competency in both.”
Cyber security minister Feryal Clark said: “Cyber security is essential to our economic strength and national resilience. Today’s announcement is backed by investment showing we’re serious about making the UK a global leader in cyber innovation and protection.
“Through our plan for change, we’re backing the sector to create high-quality jobs through the cyber growth action plan and ensuring our public services are built on secure foundations with the expert support of the Government Cyber Advisory Board.”
