We are winning the fight, says head of Scottish Business Resilience Centre

Back in 2014, the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC) was approached by the office for the Mayor of London to be used as a model to form part of the MOPAC Business Crime Strategy. I am very proud to say that this was a result of the success and attention our own digital workstream had generated.

After some discussion I then found myself bound for London for six months to help establish the London Digital Security Centre (LDSC), working for the Mayor’s Office and the three main policing bodies in London.

Our aim in setting up LDSC was to provide SME sized business across London with not only the latest cyber industry guidance but also the tools to be able to trade successfully in a digital environment and protect themselves from any manner of criminal threat. In order to do this I needed to understand much more about the day-to-day digital needs of business and I worked with our partners in FSB and the London Chamber of Commerce to do this.

As a result we now know that many small businesses use their mobile and smartphones for working; secondly, that many companies are lacking confidence in their knowledge of all social media; and finally, it also showed yet again how many businesses have no insurance at all for data loss. This information forms the cornerstone of our planning to ensure LDSC can deliver guidance that adds real value.

SBRC has also developed close working relations with the Norwegian Centre for Information Security and I recently welcomed colleagues from Oslo who came to see us in action. 

Sadly threats to business continue to evolve and advance but with the increased awareness of the work of SBRC and the developments in both London and Norway, I am convinced that we are winning the fight.

Mandy Haeburn-Little is Director of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre. She has been assisting London to establish a similar model to the SBRC, which will launch later this year.