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Cyber Scotland Week (22 – 28 April) draws together events across the country to showcase the innovation taking place in the sector, while raising awareness of good cyber resilience practice and promoting a career within the industry.

Cyber security is the protection of computer systems. It takes many forms, preventing theft or damage to hardware (physical infrastructure), software (programs or apps) and electronic data (private or sensitive information).

Along with the UK’s other funding councils, SFC provides funding towards Jisc, which runs the world-class high-speed Janet Network on behalf of research and education in the UK. As the provider of the Janet network, Jisc is in a unique position in being able to provide a comprehensive set of security products and services, including the central coordination of cyber threat intelligence from the education sector, across the Janet infrastructure, from National Research and Education Networks across the globe, and central coordination for security incidents.

SFC has also worked with Scottish institutions on the development of a joint-ICT strategy for the sector, and supported the launch of a shared Chief Information Security Officer service.

Scotland is also known for its cyber security research expertise. SFC funds the Scottish Informatics and Computing Science Alliance (SICSA) research pool, which has a Cyber-security work stream that helped advise the Scottish Government during the development of its own Cyber-Resilience strategy.

SFC and Scottish Government also funded a ‘network integrator’ post in the SICSA research pool to understand and map the sector’s cyber-resilience research capabilities. Part of the role of this post is to support the cyber-security community in meeting the demand for trained staff in this area, through the development of courses and awareness-raising events.

Edinburgh Napier University also plays host to The Cyber Academy, which aims to integrate research, innovation and teaching around Cyber security, and also runs the annual Big Data in Cyber Security International Conference.

However, as we incorporate more technology in our lives, the risk of computer systems, the Internet and wireless networks such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and smart phones being disrupted increases, not to mention the potential impacts of this disruption.

Organisations’ own IT teams and national organisations like Jisc are constantly monitoring and improving their cyber security efforts, but no system is perfect. Cyber security also relies on users making smart decisions to safeguard their data – whether at work or at home.

£400,000 was lost to cyber crime in Orkney alone last year, according to Police Scotland, who estimated up to 90 percent of successful attacks come down to human error by the victim.

Check out Cyber Scotland Week 2019 for more information and events being hosted throughout Scotland this week, including Cyber Security for Business seminars, a College Cyber Security Conference in Stirling, and a Cyber Security for the SME event hosted by Perth College UHI.

Other resources:

  • If you’re not able to make any of the events, why not take a couple of minutes to play ‘Go Phish’ with Google’s quiz, and test your ability to tell good emails from bad.
  • Cyber Skills Lessons – a free resource showing how organisations can be robbed or protected through a series of interactive coding games.
  • National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) top tips for staying safe online.

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