A £500,000 contract to extend cyber resilience training to more
than 250 organisations across the country has been awarded by the
Scottish Government.
The grant will enable the Scottish Business Resilience
Centre (SBRC) to run online and in-person workshops for
public services and third sector health, housing, and social care
bodies to ensure they are better prepared and protected.
Scotland has been subject to a number of disruptive large scale
cyber-attacks in recent years with developments in Ukraine and
the recent COVID lockdown exacerbating the situation.
The training, which has already benefited 450
organisations, includes mock scenarios such as a third-party
software compromise, a ransomware attack and a threatened
sensitive data leak.
It is hoped more than 250 organisations will benefit from the
training programme, which comes ahead of a major summit in
Edinburgh as part of European Cyber Security Month in October.
Justice Secretary , who will address the event,
said:
“We have all seen the devastating impact of an organisation
falling victim to a cyber-related incident, so extending training
to make more people aware of the risks is absolutely crucial.
“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring Scotland leads
the way in cyber resilience and security.
“This extended training will help many more organisations to
stave off the threat of an attack, and protect against disruptive
and costly data breaches.
“The workshops provide practical guidance to mitigate or respond
to hostile cyber-attacks. I would urge eligible organisations to
take up this opportunity to ensure they are protected.”
Jude McCorry, Chief Executive Officer of the SBRC, said:
“There is no denying that the ongoing pressure facing everyone
from a cyber-perspective has increased massively in recent years.
Just as we see one organisation recover from the grips of a
cyber-incident, another is targeted.
“It is also now believed that cyber criminals have targeted more
than three-quarters of public sector organisations and, closer to
home, we have seen this play out with a number of disruptive
large-scale attacks already in Scotland.
“We don’t want to see more Scottish organisations fall victim to
these attacks and that is why upskilling and awareness programmes
continue to be so vital.”
Background
SBRC will deliver the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC)
‘Exercise in a Box’ programme on behalf of the Scottish
Government. It has already upskilled 450 organisations across
Scotland since being launched in 2020. Organisations
interested in learning more about ‘Exercise in a Box’ are invited
to attend a taster session on 25 August. Find out more or
register here.
Top five cyber-resilience tips
1 Improve password security:
Creating strong, separate passwords and storing them safely is a
good way to protect yourself online.
Use a strong and separate password for your email.
Weak passwords can be hacked in seconds. Make yours strong,
longer and more memorable by combining three random words that
you can remember.
2 Save your password in to your browser:
This is safer than re-using the same password for all your
accounts. Save them to secure them.
3 Turn on 2-Step Verification:
Two step verification protects you with a second layer of
security that checks it’s really you logging in. Think of it as a
double lock for your data. Be doubly sure.
4 Update your devices:
Cybercriminals exploit weaknesses in software and apps to get
your information. Updating fixes those weaknesses. Think of
update reminders as an alarm telling you to act. Stay secure.
Update regularly.
5 Back up your data:
If your phone, tablet or laptop is hacked, you could lose all
your personal files including photos and videos. Keep everything
secure by backing up. Back it up, keep it secure.
